


Come, Tell Me how You Live

by HeyTenenbaum



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Byleth got everyone into the Blue Lions house lmao, DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO GET SPOILED, Dimitri is just tired of Sylvix, Gen, Immortal Ashe, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Spoilers, Vampire Ashe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:41:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 46,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23014948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeyTenenbaum/pseuds/HeyTenenbaum
Summary: Ashe isn't what he appears to be.On the surface, he's a kind, sweet commoner boy who wants to have the best time of his lives at the officer's academy, but on the inside, he hides a secret within him...This is the story that revolves around that secret, and how it affects the people who knew about it.(CONTAINS SPOILER ABOUT THE CHURCH'S SECRET, DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO GET SPOILED!!)
Relationships: Caspar von Bergliez/Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd & Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd & Dedue Molinaro, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Claude von Riegan, Felix Hugo Fraldarius/Sylvain Jose Gautier
Comments: 33
Kudos: 77





	1. The Awakening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I'm back for a bit, and writing something that isn't BNHA?? Wow!!  
> Okay, for now, I hope you guys enjoy this first chapter!

“It is time to wake up, young one,” the voice said, “Come now, no need to be afraid, all you have to do is to open your eyes, and… see the truth for yourself…”

The boy gasps as he opens both of his eyes, staring at the orange sky tainted with dark smoke. He gathers the strength to lifts himself off the ground, trying to recollect his memory of what happened. The last thing he remembered was shopping at the market with his master, they were buying tomatoes and a couple of fish, planning to make some stew for tonight. When all of a sudden, everything suddenly went to chaos. The Nabateans… they were screaming in terror and running away as large contraptions suddenly appear and attacks the city. His master quickly tells him to run away, and so he did, but the man himself…

“Oh… oh, dear goddess…” he said as he began to cry. His instinct, he couldn’t sense his master’s presence anywhere anymore, indicating that he’s gone, after all this time he’s finally gone from this world.

He wipes off his tears as he collects his thoughts once more. Keep running no matter what happens, that’s what he would’ve said if he’s still here right now. And he was right, of course, just because he isn’t here anymore, doesn’t mean he should give up on his journey. Even if he gave up… he doesn’t exactly know how to end it, which adds another question on his mind, how did his master die?

He looked up to the skies and his surroundings, and when he looked back to the large city, he gasped in horror as he realized what has happened. The city… it’s been destroyed, pulverized and leveled to the ground. He walked through what remains of the market, finding the bodies of the Nabateans scattered on the ground. Some of them aren’t even in their humanoid forms anymore, meaning they put up quite a fight, but were ultimately defeated. The large contraptions isn’t around anymore, is it safe for him to retreat?

He decided to take the risk and ran away from the destruction around him, wanting to return home as soon as he can. However, on the way out of the city, he was struck down by someone else. He fell back to the ground, and as he tried to get back up again, there was a sword pointing at his face now. In front of him was a woman, a tall woman with long green hair. Her face was wet, covered in tears, she has been grieving for quite some time it seems. But she was furious, she was both sad and angry at the same time. She aims her sword at his neck for a few seconds, until she realized who he was.

“You… you were not with them, were you?” she asked, “Your eyes… you cried as well… you lost someone, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” the boy answered, “Yes I did…”

“I… I apologize,” she said, standing down, “It’s… it’s just that…”

“I understand how you feel,” he answered, “You are grieving, and so do I. But I feel like standing around here won’t do both of us any good. Perhaps we should leave and try to figure things out from somewhere else…”

“But I… I have nowhere to go… my house, my family, my mother… they’re all gone…”

“You could stay with me for the time being,” he said, “Our fort… I mean my fortress is a relatively safe place, it’s a bit far from human villages, and the villagers are nice to us…”

“I… I believe that would be the best, yes, let us depart…”

As they walked out of the city, leaving all the chaos behind. The young boy began to speak to the woman again, asking her some questions to further his understanding of her.

“You are a Nabatean, correct?” he asked, “Your ears are quite hidden, so I don’t know for sure whether you’re human or not…”

“Yes I am,” she answered, “And I already know what you are, so let us not dwell on that…”

“Forgive me for being rude, but I have forgotten to ask your name…”

“My name is Seiros,” she said, “May I ask yours?”

“Well, my name is…”

* * *

“That’s it, good work everyone, now let’s clean up and head back to the monastery,”

Another moon, another mission for the Blue Lions house. But this time, they’re not doing their main mission, this is simply extra credit, the professor said. The knights of Seiros has just reported about the appearance of a couple of demonic beasts in Zanado. When both Byleth and Dimitri overheard the knights’ conversation, they both asked Lady Rhea whether they could help with the situation or not. She agrees and dispatched them to Zanado the following weekend.

As expected, it was an easy task for all of them, their battalion attack proved to be quite effective and managed to break through the beasts’ defenses, leaving them open to regular attacks. Ingrid did especially well on the battlefield for today, and she was praised as the key player to the current battle, making her feel proud and even more motivated to study. After they finished defeating all of the beasts, they cleaned up and gathered anything they can salvage from the battlefield. Felix found a rusted sword that he probably could fix back at the monastery, while Mercedes found a new wooden shield which she hands over to the professor since she doesn’t know what to do with it.

After they were done with all of it, the professor did a headcount and find one of their students missing: Flayn. She played quite well during their battle, but afterward, she went away somewhere, not even helping up with the cleaning. Felix was visibly frustrated at her for going away all of a sudden like that, saying that he has better things to do back at the monastery and he would like to leave as soon as possible. Sylvain attempts to calm him down and said that he would look for her, but Ingrid quickly tells him to stay.

“Didn’t Flayn avoided you the last time you tried to talk to her?” she asked, “Let’s not make this any longer, I’ll search for her, but I’m not exactly familiar with this place, so it might take some time…”

“I know this place, don’t worry, Ingrid!” Ashe said, “And I think I know where she went to, maybe I should be the one to look for her!”

“We’ll leave this to your hands, Ashe,” the professor said, “Just be careful, alright? Dedue and Mercedes will stay here to keep a lookout, while the rest of us go back to the caravan,”

“Alright, leave it to me!” he said, “Don’t worry, we’ll be back before you know it!”

The wind blows through the cliffs as Flayn stood and stares at the empty, barren land before her. Zanado is a barren place surrounded by death and despair, that’s probably the best sentence you could use to describe this place. And yet, everytime she came here, there’s always that strange feeling that she is home. Nothing grows or lives in Zanado, not anymore, but it was once home to many kind people, innocent ones who’s undeserving of such a way of death.

She remembers visiting Zanado a few times with her father, it was such a marvelous place, filled with joy and happiness, a place where she doesn’t have to hide anymore. And she certainly remembers receiving that tragic, terrible news about its destruction. They were both still living in Enbarr at the time, and when the news arrives, they quickly pack up and heads to the known location of the only survivor of that massacre. They both knocked on the fortress door, greeted by someone who wasn’t one of their kind but was nevertheless an ally of them. She could never forget his face, a kind sweet boy who lends them his fortress and cooks for them whenever they need to eat. That person was…

“Flayn? Flayn! There you are!” Ashe calls out to her, “I had a feeling you were here…”

“Ashe! Oh, a-are the other finished already?” she asked.

“Yes, and we’re all waiting for you,” he said.

“Oh, I apologize for making you wait,” she bows down in apologies, “It’s just that… well, we’re in Zanado, and there’s something that…”

“I understand,” he said, “And you don’t have to apologize to me, I’m okay with it, but maybe you should apologize to the others, Felix looked a bit angry, I think…”

“Oh no… well, we should head back, I do not wish to be a bother to our friends!”

“Now hold on just a few seconds,” Ashe said, staring at the view that Flayn has been staring at for a while now, “It really is quite a view, isn’t it?”

“Yes, yes it does,” she answered.

“Such a shame it’s gone to waste like this…” he said, “But what’s done is done… we can’t exactly change the past, but we could always look to the future and keep on…”

“…running,” Flayn answered, “Yes, you said that quite a few times already,”

“I think Dimitri would’ve said the same if he were here, but he’s back at the caravan, so… let’s go back, okay?”

“Alright,” she said, “And, um… thank you for your understanding, Duran,”

“Your welcome, Cethleann…”

* * *

It has been eight days since the horrific massacre at Zanado happened, and neither Seiros nor Duran still couldn’t believe that it all occurred so very fast. They both grieved with each other, Seiros losing her people and her family, and Duran losing the only person he could ever call family. They came back to the wreckage a couple of days after it all happened, trying to find anyone who might’ve survived, but their search was fruitless.

Seiros was extremely enraged when she found the dismembered bodies of her people, it was clear that their bodies didn’t become this way because of the slaughter, someone else purposely dismembered them for something inside. She grew so angry that she couldn’t transform back to her humanoid form for an entire day. All Duran could do was to watch from afar, hoping that she would calm down soon enough, and after a day of waiting, she came up to him and said that she’s ready to return to the fortress.

Duran did his best to help the poor woman, as he has heard rumors of Nabateans living outside of Zanado, he quickly sent out messengers to each of their locations. Using his master’s secure line of communication, in the hopes of the attackers not finding them, he managed to gain responses from three of them. It was a small number, as he has sent around 53 messages to the other Nabateans, but a result is a result, and whether they’re big or small, he’s still very much grateful to find other people who might be able to help Seiros.

On the tenth day, two strangers arrived at the fortress. Once Duran was able to confirm who they are, he quickly opened the fortress’ gate and welcomed the two of them. It was a pair of father and daughter, both Nabateans who lived in Enbarr when it all happened, and thus was saved from such a tragic fate. They quickly introduced themselves as Duran opened his door and shielded them from the heavy rain outside of the fortress.

“I am Cichol, and this is my daughter Cethleann,” the father said, “Duran, we are most grateful for your assistance,”

“You are welcome, Cichol,” he answered, “I’ve lost someone as well at Zanado, and although the thought of revenge sickens me, your kind deserves justice. But that is not the important thing right now...”

“Indeed,” Cethleann said, “Let us see to lady Seiros, father, she requires our help,”

Duran escorts them to Seiros’ room where she is praying to the progenitor goddess, asking for her help in these terrible times. Once she was done, they knocked on the door and quickly embraced each other. The boy leaves them alone, understanding that they needed some time alone for themselves. He heads down to the kitchen to prepare tonight’s dinner menu but then thought that maybe he should deliver some beverages to their guest. He quickly fired up the stove and brew some tea.

Just as he was about to head upstairs, he was surprised by Cichol standing by the entrance to the kitchen. The man smiled and asked whether he needed any help with the cooking, Duran smiled back and refused his offer. Cichol asked him to sit down for a few minutes before they take the beverage to Seiros and Cethleann upstairs as he wanted to talk to him face-to-face.

“You know, if my daughter ever offered to assist you with the cooking, just say no, be stubborn if you must,” Cichol advised, “I love her very much, but she is terrible at cooking,”

“Advice taken,” Duran chuckled, “Now, um... was there something you need of me?”

“Seiros told me about your master,” he said, “I’m terribly sorry for your loss, was he a good man?”

“He was,” Duran answered, “I was an orphan since birth, and he took me in and raised me as his own, he was the only family I have and now I’ve lost him forever...”

“Forgive me, I do not understand the details about your life state although Seiros has tried to explain it to me, would you care to elaborate?”

“Certainly,” he said, “I am what people usually refer to as ‘vampires’, we live forever, we heal very fast, and we’re very strong as well, the downside is that we do not have a pulse, we do not breathe, and we must drink blood occasionally in order to survive,”

“Blood, you say? You must drink human blood?”

“No, it doesn’t have to be human,” he answered, “Although it’s quite delicious, my master and I very much prefer animal blood. It’s part of our hunting trip, and after we’re done, we cook the meat of the creatures for our food...”

“So, you also consume normal food?”

“Yes, but it’s not exactly necessary,” he said, “We don’t have to eat, or sleep, or relieve ourselves, but we like to do it sometimes just to remember what it feels like back when we were just an ordinary human...”

“Human? You were once human, you say?”

“That was a very long time ago, but yes, vampires can’t breed, so the only way to spread our kind is to become one...”

“Forgive me, but you said your master raised you from birth... did he... did he forced your transformation, or did he ever feed on you?”

“No, he never did such things to me,” he answered, “He took me in in the hopes that I would lead a normal life, but... on that fateful day, I...”

“It is alright if you do not wish to spare the details,” Cichol said, “I fully understand if you wish to keep it as a personal matter...”

“No, it is quite alright,” Duran said, “On that day, a runaway thief came up to me on the streets and asked me to protect him. He was stealing food for his hungry children and got caught in the middle of it. I tried to hide him away, but the angry villagers who were pursuing him eventually figured out what I was doing and labeled me as an accomplice. After that, blind justice was enacted, and I was very much injured,”

“Dear goddess...” Cichol lamented.

“The next thing I knew, I was already back at home with my master taking care of me. The thief died, he told me, and judging by my condition, I would leave this world soon enough, so he made me an offer, and I accepted it...”

“Do you... do you ever regret that decision?”

“Never, not a single moment in my life have I ever regretted the choice I made on that day,” he answered, “I might never be able to have a normal life like my master’s wishes, but I am still here, and that’s all that matters for me right now...”

“Well, I am glad to hear it,” Cichol smiled, “So, what are you planning to do now that you are without your master?”

“I’ve thought about it for a while, but I believe the best thing to do right now is to assist you on your quest to find justice for your kind...”

“Duran, we welcome your assistance and we are grateful as well,” he answered, “Come now, how about we bring these warm beverages to out ladies upstairs?”

That would be nice, yes,” Duran said, carrying the tray of warm tea to Seiros’ room upstairs, “Oh, by the way, Cichol, would you and Cethleann be alright with eating grilled fish for dinner? I’ve caught some large ones earlier today, and I think it would be quite of a delicious treat for dinner...”

“Yes, that sounds quite delightful, Duran,” he said, “But please do not tell Cethleann about it, or she would immediately ask for dinner to be served right away...”

“Oh, she’s that fond of fish, huh? Then I shall keep my mouth shut until tonight..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Work has been really kicking my ass, but I sorta found solace in writing...  
> I started writing this a couple of weeks ago when I found out about Ashe's different last name in the JP version of FE3H, kinda makes me think about if that name became his secret identity or something. And then it hits me, this game is filled with people who hide their real names...  
> Of course, I couldn't make Ashe just some sort of runaway criminal who was shameful and somehow got into the officer's academy. I couldn't make him part of the church gang either since that would be unreasonable, and when I saw someone drawing Ashe dressed in a vampire's costume (sorry I lost the artist's handle), I knew what I should make him into.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy my first entry for this fandom, I have plenty of ideas I want to write for these war criminal kids. I'll be limiting this work to around 10 chapters or less though, don't want it to be too long.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Kudos, comments, and bookmarks are always appreciated!  
> [Twitter](http://www.twitter.com/heytenenbaum) | [Instagram](http://www.instagram.com/heytenenbaum)


	2. The Long Slumber

“Alright, it looks like that’s all the books for now!”

On a regular Thursday afternoon after all of his classes were done, Ashe was planning to visit the library to get some light reading done. However, when he went inside the place, he found Cyril inside, dusting and reorganizing the books on one of the main shelves. He accidentally overslept and was late for his other duties, it seems. Being a kind and helpful person, Ashe quickly asks if he might assist him. Usually, Cyril would refuse such things outright, but seeing as he was late for his duty to clean the altar to prepare for Lady Rhea’s sermon tomorrow morning, he decided to relegate his duties and said “I owe you one” to Ashe as he runs out from the library.

Dusting and sorting all of these books took a bit while, but in just an hour, he managed to finish it. He looked at the library window and realized it is almost dark, which means he should probably get back to his room and prepare for dinner tonight. Ferdinand and Mercedes are on kitchen duties for tonight, he knows Mercedes is good with sweets, but with savory stuff? He wondered how that one will go, and as for Ferdinand... he shouldn’t expect much, probably.

He was walking out from the library when he spotted a figure in the dark corner of the room. He shouted out of both surprise and fear, and then the figure revealed themselves to be none other than Linhardt, the person he wished to avoid the most at the current time.

“Linhardt! Oh gosh! Y-you scared me!!” Ashe said, “W-were you there the whole time?”

“Hm? Oh something like that,” Linhardt answered, “I apologize if I might frighten you, however, I have some inquiries I hope you could help me with...”

Ah, there we go.

Their relationship wasn’t like this before. In fact, they didn’t even have one to begin with, that is until a couple of months ago when the professor borrowed Linhardt from the Black Eagles class for mission assistance. It wasn't troubling at first, except for his untimely napping on the battlefield, of course (what the heck was he thinking?) However, the trouble started when they fought side by side together, it is during that time, Linhardt got a way closer look at Ashe’s abilities. He began to realize something, that’s for sure. Someone with a lot of knowledge about crests and ancient history like him is bound to know something.

At first, Ashe didn’t mind about it, thinking that he wouldn’t be able to figure things out anyway. But when Linhardt starts poking around a lot and asking him questions, he began to realize that this might be a more serious threat than he could've anticipated. Flayn had told him once that Linhardt is perhaps very close to figuring out both of their true identities, advising him to be wary of him. Ashe tries his best to keep his distance from him, they are in different classes, after all. However, that all changed last month when Linhardt decided to transfer to the Blue Lion house after the professor invited him.

Come to think of it, there has been a lot of students transferring from the Black Eagles house recently thanks to the professor's valiant effort of recruiting them. He remembers seeing the professor having tea with Lysithea in the morning, eating lunch with both Dorothea and Ignatz in the afternoon and then gifting Bernadetta three expensive, precious owl feathers right before their free time ends. Along with Linhardt, the four also joined the Blue Lions house in the same month...

“A-again?” Ashe asked, “Linhardt, I... I’m not really comfortable with you asking me these weird questions, um...”

“Do not worry, I only have one question and it probably won't take long,” he said, “You see, I spoke with professor Hanneman recently, and he was able to confirm that during your entrance exam, the crest analyzer shows that you possess no crest at all...”

“Oh, um... of course, I don’t have one! I mean, I’m just a commoner with no nobility bloodline! There’s no way I could have a crest! Not in a thousand years, haha!”

“Yes, you are just a commoner, however, after that, he told me something strange,” he said, “Professor Hanneman usually oversees the crest analyzer test given to all the new students, but in your case, he wasn’t in the room when you were tested, Seteth was the one doing the test...”

“Huh? Oh, right! Seteth was the one who analyzed my crest, but I think that was because professor Hanneman was taking a break, right?”

“Perhaps, but the timing was quite strange, Seteth only intercepted the test for you and two other students: Marianne von Edmund and Lysithea von Ordelia. I have asked them about this as well, but their answer was quite vague and in one case, Marianne ran away from me..."

“Linhardt, you don’t understand, crests are sometimes personal matter... not that I have one, but I get where they’re coming from...”

“And I completely understand their decision, but you and Flayn are an exception to my equation, as you said before, you’re both just plain commoner with no nobility bloodline in the past. Yet, Flayn possesses a major crest of Cethleann, and although you claim to not having one, I’ve seen you fought using abilities that are impossible to be done unless you possess a crest...”

“Maybe I’m just studious! Maybe I’m just really good that my skills resemble a crest-bearer, haha!”

“Even so, the chances of that are near impossible, around 1 to 99, I believe...” he paused, seeing Ashe’s nervous face in front of him, smirking as he realized he’s close to the truth, “So, Ashe, would you care to explain?”

“Um... e-explain about what?” Ashe said, feeling extremely nervous as to what might about to happen. Should he just fess up and tell Linhardt the truth?

“Please tell me... just how many...”

“HEY, THERE YOU ARE!!”

Ashe sighed in relief as he heard a familiar voice coming down the library hallway, it was Caspar, their mutual friend. The boy had joined the Blue Lions house a couple of months before Linhardt did, and he was very ecstatic when his childhood friend had joined as well, but seeing just how much trouble Linhardt had caused his other friend over the past month... he isn’t really sure about what he should do...

“Caspar? Oh, um... c-can we help you?” Ashe asked.

“Yeah, I was looking all over the place for you!” Caspar said, “The professor said they needed to talk to you, something about, um... teaching how to use bow and arrows to the orphans?”

“Teaching bow and arrows to the orphans??” Linhardt asked, “Why is the professor doing something like that? That doesn’t make any sense...”

“I dunno, beats me!” Caspar chuckled, “Anyway, they, uh... they wanted to see you right away! So, um... you know, uh...”

“Oh! Right, uh... I better go and see them right away! Let’s continue this conversation next time, okay, Linhardt? Well, bye for now!!”

“Wait, Ashe... and he’s gone...” Linhardt laments, seeing both of his friends walking away as fast as they could.

Dammit, he muttered to himself, he was so close to figuring out the truth, and everytime he was this close, someone suddenly appeared out of nowhere and stopped their conversation altogether. It’s always been like this, and he couldn’t help but wonder whether those people who interrupted them might know something or two, hmm..., well, that’s a place to start. Seteth isn’t an option, and neither is Flayn, they both knew something for sure, but they have their own things to hide, it seems. Then... what about Dimitri or Dedue?

* * *

They both stood in silence inside their hiding place: professor Hanneman’s office, as they waited for Linhardt to leave. Once they heard Linhardt’s muttering and his footsteps leaving the second floor, Caspar sighed in relief as a very grateful Ashe stood before him.

“Thanks for the rescue, Caspar! You’re a real lifesaver!” Ashe said.

“Your welcome, but I don’t know how long I could keep this up...” Caspar sighed, “Ashe, can we just tell him the truth, please? He won’t stop until he figures things out, and things will only get worse from here on out...”

“I know, I know,” he said, “But I couldn’t just tell anyone about it! I mean telling a random person that I’m over a thousand years old and drinks blood to survive? That’s insane!”

“First of all, Linhardt isn’t some random person, he’s our friend!” Caspar answered, “And second, why not? You told a bunch of people already! You told me, you told Dimitri, you told Dedue, and you told Lady Rhea!”

“Dimitri is the future king of Faerghus, and I'm obligated to tell him my true identity,” Ashe argued, “The same goes to Lady Rhea because she’s the head of the church, and as for you and Dedue... well that was because of an accident...”

“Oh...” Caspar paused, “Yeah, I mean how could you forget something like that...”

* * *

Caspar remembers well the time he saw it happened. It was during their first moon at the officer’s academy, they were trying to get used to living together with other nobles, commoners, and future heirs of the great houses from all over Fodlan. At that time, he was very much excited to see how things will go, and he wants to fight, like a lot. He doesn’t go out on missions as much as he was expecting, but he was free to train and hone his skill as much as he wanted to. He picked a lot of fights with the other students, and they all either lost or became tired of his antics, meaning he didn’t lose a single fight in his first month.

That is until a certain grey-haired student appeared in front of him at the training grounds. The boy wanted to find someplace to read his book, but then out of nowhere, Caspar appeared and challenged him to a fight.

“Come on, let’s fight!” Caspar enthusiastically said, his face looking as fierce as ever, wanting to fight with a person he had just recently met.

“Um... I don’t think this is a good idea, I mean we just met and all...” Ashe said, holding a book on his hand, “I should, um... maybe I should just go... I don’t wanna be a bother to you...”

“Gah! Your lack of spirit is what’s bothering me! Come on! Man up and fight with me! Or don’t tell me you don’t know how to fight...”

“Your taunts aren’t going to work on me, and it’s not that I don't know how, I just don’t want to fight anyone right now, that’s all...”

“Too late! We’re doing this now!! Hi-yaaaah!!”

Caspar tries to land a punch on Ashe’s face, but the grey-haired boy quickly sees through his ruse and blocked him off. He was surprised by this, wasn't really expecting the skinny kid to have this kind of reflex, or is it just a fluke? He tries to land multiple punches on Ashe, but the boy managed to avoid them all. And when he thought he saw an opening, Ashe managed to block his punch once again and this time, replied his effort with a powerful punch right in the stomach. Ashe doesn’t look that strong, yet he managed to give one hell of a punch. Apparently, it was so powerful that it managed to knock the living daylight out of Caspar.

The next thing Caspar remembers after that fight was waking up in the infirmary, being patched up by professor Manuella, and right next on his bed, Ashe was sitting on a chair, reading the book he had wanted to read before at the training grounds. Once he realized Caspar had regained his consciousness, he quickly apologized for hitting him with too much strength, saying that he usually has good control of his power, but might have slipped a little this time.

“I’m really sorry!! T-that never happened before, a-and I...”

“No, it’s all cool, man,” Caspar said, struggling to sit on his bed as his stomach still hurts, “That was... that was the first time anyone has ever beat me since starting the school year...”

“Oh gosh! I... I’m really sorry about that, um...”

“It’s fine, don't sweat it too much, okay?” he said, “Anyway, you got me, you got me real good! Didn’t expect someone like you could be so strong, haha!”

“Y-yeah, I sort of get that a lot...” Ashe said, “I’m sorry about punching you too hard, if there’s any way I could make it up to you, I...”

“Yeah, there is, teach me how to do what you just did!”

“E-excuse me?”

“Your reflex, your skill... it’s crazy good, man!” Caspar complimented, “If I could do just half of those, I would be unbeatable! So teach me! Teach me how to fight like you!!”

“I’m not sure if that's a good idea, w-what if I accidentally hurt you again?”

“That’s just a risk I’m willing to take!” he said, “Besides, you’re the one who offered, right? So you can’t back out of it! That’s not what a true knight would do!”

“I... I guess you’re right,” Ashe sighed, “Okay, as soon as you get back on your feet again, I will teach you some of my battle moves,”

“Thanks, man, I appreciate it!” Caspar smiled, “Oh, by the way, I didn’t catch your name! I’m Caspar von Bergliez, second son of Count Bergliez! What’s yours?”

“I’m Ashe, Ashe Ubert,” he answered, “Adopted son of Lord Lonato, that’s who I am...”

“Nice to meet you, Ashe! I hope we could become good friends!”

“Yeah, me too, Caspar, me too...”

* * *

That was the story of how these two met and became friends.

But the thing Caspar won’t be able to forget for the rest of his life didn’t happen until the next moon.

It was near-sundown, which means kitchen duties for dinner will start soon. Usually, the monastery assigns three students, all from different houses each to help cook dinner for the entire school. This time, Caspar was the one who got assigned from the Black Eagles house, while Dedue and Hilda were assigned from their respective houses each. As usual, when it comes to the three of them, Dedue seems to be the only capable cook around here, while Hilda simply waltzes around the kitchen, doing menial tasks and tries to find her way out of it, making strange excuses that go far beyond the line.

“Hilda, could you pass the pepper for me?” Dedue asked, keeping an eye on his pot of boiling stew.

“Oh, but it’s so far away! My delicate feet will break if I force it to move that far!” Hilda said.

“Come on, Hilda! It’s literally behind you!” Caspar said, taking the jar of pepper from the shelf behind where Hilda is sitting, “Geez, Claude wasn’t kidding about you, you are lazy!”

“Hey, I spent a good amount of energy on other things, you know!”

“Like what?”

“This?” she said, pointing to her entire body, “This doesn’t happen in a day, you know?”

Both Dedue and Caspar simply sighed at Hilda’s statement. The three of them continue their cooking until everything is done, a nice serving of delicious Daphnel stew. Dedue puts the large pot of hot, delicious smelling stew onto the dining hall table and hands everything over to the kitchen staff who are in charge of distributing the meals to the hungry faculty members. Dedue smiled at the two of them, saying they did a great job.

“We sure did, didn’t we?” Hilda asked.

“We?? You did almost nothing!!” Caspar complained, “Dedue and I did most of the cooking!!”

“It was a team effort, hee hee!” Hilda giggled, completely ignoring everything Caspar said, “Well, I better sit down and eat! All that hard work is making me hungry!”

“I have spared four servings of stew back at the kitchen so we wouldn’t have to wait in line for the meal,"

“I’m guessing the fourth plate is for Dimitri, huh?” Caspar asked.

“You will address him as his highness! Do not be disrespectful to the crown of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus!” Dedue berated him.

“Hey, he’s not my ruler! I mean it’s fair if I just call him by his name, right? Didn’t he asked everyone to do just that back during orientation week?”

“I guess that is true, fine, I shall overlook it today...” he answered, “Now then, please enjoy your meal...”

“Uh... you’re not eating?”

“I have something to take care of, and then I will dine with his highness,” Dedue said, “I have asked Ashe to bring over some rabbit meat for tomorrow’s meal, however, he has not arrived while we were cooking, I would like to check on him to see if everything’s fine,”

“Ashe, huh? Wait up, I’ll come with you!”

“Truly, there is no need to...”

“Come on, it’s fine!” Caspar said, “I wanna go see him too! Maybe he’s having a hard time butchering the rabbit or something like that...”

“That is... possible...” Dedue answered, “Alright, he should be somewhere around the back, let us find him...”

* * *

Dedue and Caspar walked towards the back of the kitchen, trying to find Ashe, who was supposed to be in charge of the rabbit meat for tomorrow’s meal. They heard a noise as they reached the back area, finding Ashe sitting down next to a pile of dead, skinned rabbit next to him. He doesn’t look like he’s having difficulty, but something seems wrong here. Caspar could see that he’s holding one of the rabbits in front of him, and that noise... is he... eating?

“Dedue, um... this... he’s not eating the rabbits, is he?” Caspar whispered.

“I do not know,” Dedue whispered, being cautious as they move closer, taking out a small dagger from his arsenal, surprising Caspar, “Stay close to me...”

They moved slowly as they head closer towards Ashe. Caspar calls out his name, trying to make sure things are alright. His voice, however, startled Ashe, and the boy turns around towards the two of them. They both became horrified at the sight in front of them as they take a clear look at his face.

His mouth... it’s covered in blood, rabbit’s blood, and his teeth... were those pair of sharp fangs always there before? Caspar shouted at the horrific sight, while Dedue was horrified, but quickly prepares for an assault as Ashe walked towards them.

“C-Caspar! Dedue!! P-please, this isn’t what it looks like!!” Ashe said, trying to explain.

“W-what do we do??” Caspar said, “Dedue, what do we do??”

“IT’S OVER, BEAST!!” Dedue shouted as he quickly stabs his dagger at Ashe’s face.

Caspar closed both of his eyes as the larger student went for the kill, he heard a noise afterward, but it doesn’t sound like something was being stabbed, it was more like...

“I-impossible...” Dedue laments, his dagger was broken into two pieces as it hit Ashe’s face. The boy in front of him doesn’t have a single scratch on his face. He tries to calm both of them down, but to no avail, they quickly ran away back to the kitchen.

Once the pair made it back to the kitchen, they were greeted with the sight of Dimitri, who was picking up his serving of stew. Saying that when he arrived at the dining hall, Hilda informed him that Dedue had already prepared his meal inside the kitchen. He thanked his vassal for his help, and then he noticed that the two of them looked terrified for some reason...

“Is there something wrong?” Dimitri asked, “Dedue, Caspar, you can tell me if there’s something that’s bothering you...”

“Y-your highness, we... you will not believe it if we tell you...” Dedue said.

“Yeah, man! It was batshit crazy!!” Caspar said.

“I’ve seen terrible things in my life, things that nobody would believe if I told them out loud,” Dimitri said, “So try me...”

“Well, w-we went out back from the kitchen, a-and...”

Caspar’s story was interrupted, however, as Ashe enters the kitchen through the back door. His fangs are gone and his mouth is clean. The pair, still feeling terrified of him, quickly takes a large kitchen knife each and points it at him. Dimitri was surprised by this and asked them what is the matter.

“Your highness! Do not trust a word this creature said!” Dedue said.

“This creature? Dedue, what are you talking abo...” Dimitri paused, quickly realizing the situation as he turns his attention towards the grey-haired boy, “Ashe, don’t tell me they...”

“Yes, they did,” Ashe nods, feeling embarrassed of himself, “I... I’m sorry for my recklessness, your highness! I will give them a proper explanation until they understand everything!!”

“Okay, what the heck is going on here??” Caspar interrupted, “Dimitri... you knew about this?”

“Unfortunately yes,” Dimitri answered, “I am fully aware of Ashe’s... dietary needs,”

“Dietary needs?? Dude, he was drinking blood straight out from the source!! That’s just insane!!”

“I was planning to do some light reading tonight, but now it seems that I have another task at hand...” he lamented, “For now, there is no need to worry, Ashe and I will explain everything after dinner...”

“Your highness, I don’t understand...” Dedue said, “You... you are alright with this?”

“It’s not like I have any other choice, Dedue...” he answered, “Ashe is a valuable ally to the kingdom, he should not be harmed in any way... not that he could be harmed...”

“I... I think they already saw that for themselves, your highness...” Ashe said.

“Very well, let us eat,” DImitri said, “Caspar, please come to the library after dinner, the place is usually empty at night, which means we could talk privately there...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgive me if Hilda seems a bit ooc in this one, I didn't get a lot of chance of interacting with her, but by the looks of it, she seems to be the epitome of "sit still look pretty" lol.
> 
> I'm trying to find the right time to update this fic, I'm still halfway through the fourth chapter, so I'm sorry if I stopped updating, I have a full time job, and it's a bit hard to make time every night to continue writing this.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Kudos, comments, and bookmarks are always appreciated!  
> [Twitter](https://www.twitter.com/heytenenbaum) | [Instagram](https://www.instagram/com/heytenenbaum)


	3. The Interlopers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone  
> I know it's been a rough couple of weeks for the world, but life must go on  
> If you're bored at home, this new chapter might entertain you for a bit  
> I'm sorry, this is all I could give to you right now.  
> I'll see you later down below. In the meantime, happy readings.

After dinner, the four of them gathered together at the library. Just like Dimitri predicted, the place was already empty since everyone was tired after eating that delicious serving of Daphnel stew. Tomas had already retired as well, making Dimitri and Ashe’s job much easier. The four of them sat down at a small study table, speaking in a low voice just in case anyone comes in, the library is still open after all...

“Alright, let us begin,” Dimitri said, ”Dedue, I have taught you about the various lands and territories of Faerghus, correct? What can you tell me about the Duran territory?”

“The Duran territory...” Dedue answered, ”It is a peaceful territory on the southern side of Faerghus, it has extremely fertile grounds and there is never a conflict happening there, it is ruled by Lord Duran, a noble family that has made its fortune since the days of Saint Seiros’s gospel, though, Lord Duran himself is a secluded, private person who has never made any appearance publicly...”

“Uh... what does this have to do with Ashe drinking blood again?” Caspar asked.

“You see, I have met Lord Duran, many times, in fact,” Dimitri said, “And now, you have as well...”

“What? I don’t remember meeting anyone like that? Hey Dedue, what’s he talking about?”

“Um... I think he meant me,” Ashe sighed, “Yes, it’s true, I am Lord Duran, ruler of the Duran territory of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus...”

“This... this can’t be...” Dedue said, feeling puzzled about it, “Ashe, you are a member of the Faerghus nobility? You are the son and heir to the previous Lord Duran? And you’ve been keeping it a secret from everyone this entire time?”

“The previous? Dedue, here is where you are mistaken,” Dimitri smirked, ”Ashe is not the heir since there is none to begin with, ever since that house and territory was settled, there has been only one Lord Duran...”

“Wait, how can there be only one Lord Duran? That doesn’t make any sense!” Caspar argued, “That house couldn’t survive without an heir! There has to be plenty of Lord Durans from way back!”

“Caspar...” Dedue paused, ”I think his highness is trying to imply that... Lord Duran, or Ashe... is over a thousand years old...”

“WHAT???” he said, ”No way man!! No human person could live that long! That’s impossible!”

“But um... the thing is, I’m not exactly a human person,” Ashe answered, showing the two of them his pair of sharp fangs, ”You see, I’m... I’m a bit more complicated...”

“Ashe... tell us everything,” Dedue said.

* * *

And so, the four of them spent the next hour at the library listening to Ashe’s story. About his childhood as an orphan, how he became a vampire in the first place, the time he encountered Saint Seiros after the two of them escaped from a horrifying massacre, his participation and assistance in the war against the Fell King, and the reward he took in the form of a large land and a nobility title given by Emperor Hresvelg himself.

A long time later, the empire eventually became divided and part of it turned into what is known as Faerghus today. Lord Duran, having been neutral during the entire conflict, later became a part of the kingdom when his territory was handed over to King Loog the first. He then introduced himself to his majesty and offered him his services as a royal advisor. The king, although skeptical about his claim, gave him a position anyway, a decision he would never came to regret since many of Duran’s advice brought Faerghus to prosperity. Everytime an heir to the throne turns eight years old, they are introduced to Lord Duran as their future advisor.

“That was when I first met Ashe,” Dimitri said, ”I was perplexed, I thought it was a joke made by my father... I mean, a teenager who ruled over a large territory and held the position of royal advisor? That alone made me laugh, but when Ashe shows his true nature and his wisdom... I became convinced little by little...”

“I was his highness’s friend...” Ashe said, “Everytime I came to the castle to advise his majesty, King Lambert, he was always so thrilled to meet me... and then that happened...”

“Yes... Duscur happened...”

Ashe would never forget the time he heard the news of what happened. Lord Rodrigue, leader of the Fraldarius territory was the one who sent him the message. Quickly, he rushed to the capital and heads straight into the castle. The young 13-year old Dimitri was there, having been rescued from the chaos that happened. Ashe embraces the young boy, saying that everything is going to be alright. Dimitri cried and cried in Ashe’s arm, telling him everything he saw, and everything that happened before he was rescued by kingdom soldiers. Ashe knew exactly what he was going through, and right now, he was the best person to help Dimitri.

“Dedue, just so you know... I... I told his highness to not act rash and attack Duscur, but...” Ashe said.

“The people took it upon themselves and did it anyway...” Dedue said, ”It is not your fault, nor is it his highness’ fault, it is fine...”

“Wow, can’t believe I’m actually this excited to learn history!” Caspar said, ”So what happens next?”

“Well, after that, I dedicated myself to preparing the future king for the throne...”

Ashe continued his story, although the king is now gone, his visits to the capital became more often as he continues to advise and teach Dimitri on various subjects. They are forced to meet outside of the castle grounds, however, as they both decided not to tell the current regent and de facto ruler, Rufus, about Ashe’s identity since technically, the man is only ruler for a short period before Dimitri truly takes the throne. When Dimitri is admitted to the officer’s academy, Ashe decided that he would enroll there as well so that they may continue their mentorship, however, that’s when they ran into trouble.

“I need a recommendation to enroll here, and any connection I might have would be too suspicious to use...” Ashe said, ”Lord Duran is known to be a private person, and using his name to get me here would cause unwanted attention, I couldn’t use Lady Rhea’s help either, it would be far too suspicious for the church to just admit a random commoner into their school...”

“And the crown is no help either,” Dimitri said, ”Outside of the Duran name, Ashe is considered as a commoner with no connection to me or my family, and we can’t put him here without any clear reason...”

“So... that’s where Lord Lonato comes in...” he answered, “You see, I... I know this family in the Gaspard territory, the Uberts, they own this small restaurant, but their cooking is very delicious! And then... the parents passed away from an illness, leaving the two poor children behind...”

“And so you arranged the two of them to be taken care of by Lord Lonato, with you as an addition,” Dedue said.

“Correct, the Ubert children were quite fond and attached to me, and when I asked them to pass me as their older brother, they didn’t hesitate for a single second,” Ashe said, ”And that is how I was adopted by Lord Lonato and entered the officer’s academy,”

“I believe that was the last part of our explanation,” Dimitri said, ”Do you have any questions?”

“Yeah, like a lot!” Caspar enthusiastically said, ”What can you do? You got any special powers like crest people and stuff?”

“Well, uh... that might take some time to explain...” Ashe answered, ”Listen, how about if I show you two instead, tomorrow after classes are over?”

“Cool! Let’s meet up at the training grounds!”

“No, we cannot do that there,” Dedue said, ”Caspar, I believe it is imperative that we keep everything we heard today to ourselves, it would be... quite bothersome for us and the church if Ashe’s true identity gets out...”

“Yeah, I figured as much...” he answered, ”The forest then? Let’s find someplace empty and quiet so we could see what you’re really made of!”

“That would be wise, yes,” Ashe answered, ”I’m sorry I scared you two today, but now that you know everything about me, I hope nothing will change between all of us...”

“You are trusted by His Highness and have pledged loyalty to him,” Dedue said, ”That is all I needed to know...”

“Eh, so what? You drink a little bit of rabbit blood once every month, big deal!” Caspar said, ”That doesn’t change anything in my book! We’re still training partners, aren’t we?”

“I... thank you, both of you...” Ashe said.

* * *

And now, here they are, three moons later, inside Professor Hanneman’s office, hiding from one of their friends who were curious and smart enough to know that something is up. Caspar recalls that night like it was just yesterday, and ever since Linhardt starts to meddle with Ashe, he tried his best to keep the green-haired boy away from him. But the charade is starting to fade, and now, he thinks it might be best to just tell Linhardt about it altogether...

“By the way, what did Linhardt asked you?” Caspar asked.

“Well, you came before he could finish his question so I’m not sure,” Ashe said, ”But I think he was going to ask me just how many crests I have...”

“Crests? You have a crest? Wait, you have more than one crest??”

“Oh, right, I never told you about it,” he said, ”But yes, I have more than one crest, maybe far too many than one should have...”

“Ashe, um... what crests do you have on you? And... you were born before the times of Seiros and the ten elites, weren’t you? So... how did you get them?”

“As a reward from assisting Seiros and the four saints, they each gave me their crests...” Ashe answered, “I have five crests in total...”

“WHAT???” Caspar shouted, “F-five… I-is that even possible?”

“Probably not for a normal human, but since I’m not one and I can’t die... things have been going just fine for me over the last thousand year,”

“How… how do you even hide that kind of stuff from people?? They would’ve noticed right away when they see you fight on the battlefield!”

“Well, when you have a lot of crests for more than a thousand year, you learn a thing or two,”

“Like what? What thing?”

“I know how to control it,” Ashe answered, “I can get my crests to activate on-demand, but most of the time, they’re dormant inside me, meaning they won’t do anything unless I tell them to…”

“Wow… Linhardt and Professor Hanneman would kill to learn something like that,” Caspar said, “Hey, so what happens when you step into the crest thingamajig? Will it broke because you have five of them?”

“Oh, the crest analyzer? No, it won’t break,” he said, “But since it could only show results for one crest, everytime I go into the thing, it will give different results, during the entrance exam, I asked Lady Rhea to let me skip this part, because…”

“You don’t want any result showing up…” Caspar said, “Okay, I get it, I don’t have a crest but they sound really bothersome from what I’ve heard…”

“They are if people know you have one…” Ashe answered, “I’ve certainly encountered many troubling stories related to crests, so that’s why I’ve decided to hide mine…”

“You don’t have to tell me twice, I was there when Sylvain… you know…”

“Oh… oh yes, you weren’t part of our class, but you were there because the professor asked you to…” he said, “It was… truly a sad story…”

“The entire affair with Miklan Gautier is indeed a sad one, but we cannot turn back the hands of time…”

Both Ashe and Caspar was shocked to hear another voice coming from inside the room. They turned around towards the door to find none other than Linhardt standing by the doorway, having heard their conversation.

“L-Linhardt?? How… how long have you been standing there?” Caspar asked.

“Long enough to answer all of my questions…” Linhardt calmly answered, “I would much prefer if you just tell me the whole thing voluntarily, but opportunities come and goes, I guess… isn’t that right, Lord Duran?”

“Linhardt, please… you… you can’t…” Ashe begged.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry, I’m not an idiot…” he said, “I know full well the repercussions of revealing what I’ve heard today to the entire academy, your secrets are safe with me…”

“Dude, I don’t understand, we heard you leaving!” Caspar said.

“Or so you thought, I actually just mumbled, took a few steps down the stairs and then sneaked back here when I realized you two were hiding in here…”

“Well, I guess that’s one more person who knew about me…” Ashe said, “I guess you’re going to take more of my time, aren’t you? So you could study me and learn about my five crests…”

“Hmm? Oh no, the five crests aren’t exactly my interest currently,” Linhardt answered, “You’re not human, and humans can’t have more than one crest, so learning about your crests working together would simply be useless, for now at least…”

“So, what do you want to see from me?”

“There is one thing...”

* * *

On Thursday afternoon, when classes are over by the late afternoon, things are usually quiet. Some students are doing their chores, while others enjoy themselves by relaxing in their own room or praying inside the church accompanied by blissful hymns coming from the renowned choir of Seiros.

Other students, however, like Linhardt, has a different way of relaxing.

“I still can’t believe after all that, all you wanted was some fishing tips,” Ashe said.

The fish pond over at Garreg Mach monastery hosts a variety of fishes, from the most common, to the rarest of all. It is said that the lake was blessed by Saint Seiros herself, and when her soul visited the monastery, the lake will give a golden glow and fishes with the scale color of gold and jewel will appear. Each time this happened, the monks and the priests will pray for three hours straight out of gratitude because Seiros herself has blessed them with fortunes in the form of valuable fishes.

The truth is a bit simpler than that, occasionally at midnight where nobody is watching, Ashe and Seteth will accompany Lady Rhea to the lake so that she could perform a special spell that will make it glow for about a day, and then they will release a bunch of golden fishes into the lake. The fish itself isn’t exactly special, Lady Rhea stumbled upon it during her visit to Almyra, it was pretty, but they’re not rare. She brought back a few of the fishes and decided to farm them somewhere hidden inside the church. Only a few people, including Ashe, who knows about the fish’s true origins, while others thought of it as part of the goddess’ divine blessing or something like that.

“I imagined you must’ve fished a lot in your life,” Linhardt said, “And a thousand years of expertise on fishing? That is far more valuable than knowledge about five crests that we already have all the information,”

“I’ve told you all of my powers and you aren’t even curious one bit... are you still Linhardt von Hevring?”

“Oh, I am curious, but demonstration could wait for another week, maybe...” he answered, ”I’ve already scheduled a nap in half-an-hour, your demonstration will considerably take longer than that, so maybe another time...”

“Wow... you really are just like your great-granduncle...” Ashe said, ”I’ve met him once a long time ago when he was just a young boy, and all he wanted to do was to return home and sleep...”

“I’ve been told about that...” Linhardt said, “May I ask you something? This isn’t the first time you’ve been here before, am I correct?”

“Yes, you’re not wrong to assume that,” he answered, “Actually, this is my...”

“Hey you two, got some snacks for you!” Caspar said, returning from the dining hall with a plate of sweet buns, “Dig in!”

“Oh, this is my favorite, thank you, Caspar!” Ashe said, grabbing a piece of sweet, cream-filled bun from the plate.

“So, how many times have you attended the officer’s academy, Ashe?” Linhardt asked.

“What? Oh, wait, you’re super old,” Caspar said, “So you probably went here a bunch of times...”

“Well, yes, but not really that often,” Ashe answered, “Ever since this place was built, I decided to enroll here once every 20 or 30 years or so, I was supposed to enroll here in five more years, but his highness’ enrollment changed my schedule...”

“What was it like back then?” Linhardt asked, “Was this place any different from then?”

“No, not really, nothing significant, I suppose…” he answered, “Though, the sauna is a nice addition…”

“Aren’t you afraid of going and coming back here?” Caspar asked, “Some folks who went to school with you could probably recognize you?”

“No, I always use a different identity each time I come here, and I would never see any of my classmates again, other the ones who inherit the throne, of course,” Ashe said, “And during the class reunion, I would just send a messenger and tell them I got killed off at a battle somewhere far away, that’s all…”

“Still, some of these people are ancient, you sure nobody recognized you?”

“Well…”

Ashe turned his attention towards professor Byleth, who came to the pond with their fishing pole and an entire bucket of baits. The professor loves fishing for some reason, they do it nearly everyday, and they’re very great at it. Often, they are accompanied by other people such as Flayn or Alois, but today, they are alone, standing by the pond and casting their pole, waiting for the fishes to come out.

“There might be one or two people who recognized me…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so..., um...  
> With all that's been happening, I hope everyone here stays healthy.  
> Stay indoors, wash your hands for at least 20 seconds, and don't panic.
> 
> Again, I'm sorry if this is the only form of entertainment I could give you right now, but given the current situation, I'm going to upload another chapter on Saturday/Sunday. I hope this helps, even for a bit.
> 
> I would also like to take this moment to ask you guys to support artists who lost a lot of income thanks to canceled/postponed cons this year. Buy their stuff, give them some ko-fi, or become a patron. And if you don't have any money, the other best thing you could do is to promote them, retweet their works, give them a lot of likes & love.
> 
> As for me, I'm doing just fine over here, no worries.  
> Still going to the office every morning, but who knows how long that'll last given the current situation.  
> Just stay calm, but be cautious, okay, guys?
> 
> Thanks for reading! Kudos, comments, and bookmarks are always appreciated!  
> [Twitter](https://www.twitter.com/heytenenbaum) | [Instagram](https://www/instagram.com/heytenenbaum)


	4. The Knave

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a pretty rough week, I hope you all stay healthy  
> As promised, here's one more chapter for this week  
> I'll see you all in a bit  
> Happy reading!

Twelve seconds.

That’s how long someone usually has to be able to quickly assess the situation on the battlefield. They would need to see the movements of every one of their allies and enemies, and then quickly calculate exactly how much trouble they’re in. It’s a simple equation that doesn’t have many variables and could be done by anyone, however, the results have to be produced at a very short time, otherwise, the variables would quickly change and the calculation no longer becomes valid.

In short, someone only has twelve seconds to figure out how fucked they are on the battlefield.

Catherine, the wielder of Thunderbrand, a loyal and devout member of the Knights of Seiros, and one of the Archbishop’s most trusted knights does this sort of calculation very often. In her head, she could easily calculate the situation she is in, the chances of survival, and what she should do next.

Right now, in the midst of battle, her calculation shows she has only around 8% chances of survival.

It was supposed to be just a simple mission, a group of bandits has been pillaging a small village on the south of Faerghus. Although unnecessary, she follows protocol and sends out a group of scouts at first to assess the situation at the village. After three days, however, the scouts didn’t send any word and none of them have returned, forcing her to head down and take care of the situation herself. At first, still thinking that this was just a simple bandit situation, she went into the village with only little preparations and the minimum number of knights required to accompany her. However, she soon found out that the situation was far more serious than what the reports suggest.

In truth, there was no bandit situation in the village, because there was no village at all. The reports that have been coming in… they must have been falsified by another party. She was shocked, to say the least, to find an empty field of grass on the spot where the village should be. Out of nowhere, they were suddenly ambushed by an unknown force, coming in a slightly greater number than theirs. The troops she brought with her, now very much injured and are captured by the enemy.

She rode her horse alone, fending off every enemy in front of her, but that was simply not enough. She fell off her horse as it ran away amidst the chaos, in front of her was the leader of the enemy, a rogue priest from the Western Church. She recognized the man’s face as he took off his mask. When they purged the other churches, one of their leaders managed to escape somehow, and he was never seen again, until today.

Catherine, injured and surrounded by the enemies, quickly crawls away from them, reaching for Thunderbrand that was hidden within their belongings. She searched her bag but found nothing inside, and then she looked at the rogue members of the church, carrying Thunderbrand in their hands together. All of them wore gloves, to prevent them from actually wielding the sword and transformed into a demonic beast. The rogue priest inched closer to her, carrying a sword of his own, and preparing to slay her once and for all.

“You… you won’t get away with this, you know…” Catherine said, moments away from her perhaps inevitable death, “The church will find you and destroy your cult to the very last core!”

“Oh, but I will…” he said, “When they realized what happened, we will be far away from here along with our brethren, and they will never track us down. Now, prepare to meet your end!!”

Catherine closed both of her eyes, thinking that her time has finally come to an end in just a few seconds. She didn’t do much, but she was proud of her work serving and being loyal to Lady Rhea to the very end, it was a shame she couldn’t do this longer. She thought of the goddess, and how she would meet her soon.

However, something else happened.

Her chances of survival were only a mere 8%, and that slim number suddenly went up to 87% in just a few short seconds. She opened both of her eyes as she heard a noise in front of her, her life hasn’t ended just yet, and in front of her, stood a relatively short figure wearing a knight’s helmet, but no armor on their body. The rogue priest stood in shock, seeing his shatter in pieces just from swinging it at this strange person. He moves away and takes another sword from his nearby supplies, aiming for the person’s neck, but the same result happened, the sword quickly breaks as soon as it hits the neck.

“I… Impossible!” the rogue priest said, “W-who are you??”

“I’m your worst nightmare,” the person said, “A weapon sent by the goddess to avenge a good man’s death…”

“A g-good man’s… death?”

“Lonato’s blood is in you and your comrades hand…” they said, “And for that, you must pay, all of you must pay…”

The rogue priest looks at his surroundings, his followers… they’re all lying on the ground now, both dead and injured. The remaining, the ones that he could still see standing, they are fighting for their lives, but are ultimately cut down by another force, a powerful and strong one. From far away he could see a glimpse of one of the troops, is that… the Prince of Faerghus?

“Now then, it is time for your payment,” the person said, “In the name of justice!!”

The rogue priest quickly gets on his feet and ran away as quickly as he could, going the other direction to avoid the prince and his troops. The person behind him stood still, not moving to pursue him at all. When he went far enough, he thought he has somehow made it through, but the strange person lifts their finger and the sky began to become dark, releasing a frightful noise. And then, boom! Thunder, a deadly strike of thoron came down from the sky and hits the rogue priest right on the spot, frying and killing him instantly. Catherine simply stood and watched the entire thing happening, just exactly who is this mysterious person who saved her?

“Catherine!” she heard a familiar voice coming towards her, it was Dimitri, “Oh, thank the goddess you are alive! We thought we were too late!”

“Dimitri? I… Dedue, Caspar… and even Linhardt? W-what are you kids doing here?” Catherine asked, “Aren’t you all supposed to be on holiday for the week?”

“We are,” Caspar answered, “But then this call for help came from the church, and since we were the only ones nearby, we went here as soon as we could!”

“A call for help from the church?”

“Seteth realized the deception this morning and tried to reach you,” Dedue answered, “But he couldn’t, and so, he sent a call for help to all the nearby nobles in the region,”

“I don’t understand… nearby? Where were the four of you? And you… that blade didn’t cut off your neck… who are you?”

“We were invited to stay for a few days at Lord Duran’s fortress,” Dimitri said, “Ah, about this man, I believe his identity should remain a secret, but…”

“It’s okay, Lady Rhea gave me her permission,” the person said, taking off their helmet, revealing their true appearance, “Hello, Cassandra…”

“Ashe??” Catherine exclaimed loudly.

“We should perhaps head back to the fortress,” Dimitri said, “Linhardt has performed healing magic on your soldiers, and the knights should be here any moment now. They found the missing scouts tied up in a nearby cottage that they’re using as their base, all alive but dehydrated…”

“Come, Catherine,” Ashe said, “I’ll explain everything on the way, come on…”

* * *

The six of them rode inside a large carriage that belonged to Ashe. Catherine, still both shocked and exhausted from the battle, tries to focus as the grey-haired boy starts to explain his condition and who he truly is. A memory came to mind inside her head all of a sudden, remembering her childhood back when she was still part of House Charon. She remembered hearing about Lord Duran, whom her father described as a mysterious and peculiar person from the southern region of Faerghus, but always a delight to everyone in the kingdom.

This brings a slight confusion to Cassandra, however. As the daughter and pride of House Charon, she had attended many parties and balls alongside her family, and she certainly knew plenty of nobles there, but she had never heard or met with the infamous Lord Duran. That’s when her father explained the mysterious aspect about Lord Duran, the man is never seen in public, he is a recluse who resides in his large fortress everyday, but he always sends plenty of correspondence to the other nobles in the kingdom, and that’s how they became friends with him.

She remembered one day when she was just seven years old, she saw someone talking to the guards at the gate of their house. It was a teenage boy, with short gray hairs, he was riding a carriage, filled with crates that has other nobles’ name on it. Her father quickly came to the gate and greeted the boy with pleasure, it was a messenger boy from Lord Duran it seems. The Duran territory has plenty of wonderful, magic-infused land. Apparently, the fruits and the crops that grow there are considered as top-notch quality and sell higher in the market. Yet, despite this, Lord Duran barely impose any taxes on his citizens, saying that he has plenty of money already. As a result, the citizens residing in Duran territory became prosperous and most of them are wealthy.

“Oh, hello young one,” the messenger boy said, “You must be Cassandra, am I mistaken?”

Cassandra nods, greeting the young boy with a smile.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Lord Duran’s messenger boy, I hope we’ll see each other again in the future!”

“Young man, thank you very much for delivering this wonderful gift,” Lord Charon said, ”Where will you be heading now? You have plenty of crates on your back?”

“I’m heading to the Galatea territory, my Lord,” the young boy answered.

“Ah, the Galatea territory! Well, safe travels, young boy! Send my best wishes to Lord Duran! May he have the most prosperous harvest for the years to come!”

“I believe he’ll be happy to hear that, my Lord,” he answered, getting back on his carriage, ”Farewell! May the goddess be with you!”

Lord Charon carried the heavy crate with him until they reached the dining hall. They both opened the crate to find a large assortment of colorful, vibrant fruit inside, some of which Cassandra had never even seen before in her entire life. She was curious about one of the pretty fruits inside, a red-colored one. Her father explained that it’s called a “raspberry” and it mostly grows on alliance territory.

“Well there, and on the Duran territory, anything can grow there if you want to,” her father answered, ”Cassandra, would you like a taste?”

Cassandra nods, grabbing a piece of raspberry from inside the crate and puts it inside her mouth. As the juices burst from the berry, she could taste the sweetness, the tangy and sour flavor coming from all corners of her mouth. It was the most delightful thing she ever tasted in her life, her father smiled as he saw just how much her daughter had enjoyed it. In her later years, when she visited the alliance territory alone, she always wanders to the market to grab some raspberry. She returned to the knights' hall and shared it with everyone there.

“Mmm!! These raspberries taste wondrous!” Alois said, ”Don’t you agree, Catherine?”

“I guess,” she answered, ”I like them, but they didn’t taste the same to me, I’ve had better in the past, much, much better,”

“Now I’m curious!” He said, ”Raspberries that tastes even more delightful than these? Where could you ever find them?”

“It’s a secret,” she said.

* * *

Although she has been travelling in all corners of Fodlan because of her assignments, Fort Duran is perhaps the only place she has never stepped a foot in all of Faerghus. She often sees the place from afar, on the road when they pass the territory, but the Duran region is always so very peaceful, the church doesn’t have many reasons to send their knights there. And weirdly enough, Lady Rhea never mentioned the Duran territory, not even once. As if everything is perfect and there’s nothing wrong here.

“Ah, we’re here,” Ashe said, “Don’t worry, Cassandra! We’ll fix you up and get you running in no time!”

Now, looking at the boy... no, the man who is supposedly in charge of this territory, Catherine finally understands everything.

Fort Duran is a medium-sized fort, not as large as the one in the Gautier territory, but at least bigger than the one her father has. She looked around as the carriage entered the front lawn, there aren’t many servants around here, preferably to keep Ashe’s identity from getting everywhere, and most of the servants she saw were young people.

The carriage comes to a halt, and a man opens the door. Dimitri and Ashe stepped out first, greeting the man and explaining the situation. The man helps Catherine getting out of the carriage and quickly calls a couple of the young staff members to help prepare a room for the injured knight. He introduced himself as the head butler of Fort Duran, and he will be entirely at her service for the entire duration she’s planning to stay there.

After the room is prepared, the head butler escorted her to her chambers, with Dedue and Caspar helping her in case if she’s not strong enough to walk anymore. It was a large room, much larger than the one back in her home, and her quarter back at Garreg Mach. After they finished explaining the rules of the fortress, and the time dinner will be served for the night, the three of them left her alone to rest. Catherine lies on the large bed, thinking just how did she ended up here.

Just around an hour ago, she was on the verge of death, when suddenly, Ashe and his friends interrupted the fight and saved her life. On the way here, he explained about his true nature and who he is, although she didn’t listen very much thanks to her injured state. Linhardt did his best (probably) at healing her injuries, and most of them are fine by now, but she still needs to clean up. The head butler told her to ring in if she wants something, and right now, all she could think of is a nice warm bath, but perhaps that could be done later after she takes her rest. She closed both of her eyes and began to drift into a nice slumber in the afternoon.

Somewhere inside the fortress, Linhardt smirked. Caspar asked him what that was about, but he explained that he’s too tired from using healing magic, and now, he’s going to retire back to his chamber for the rest of the afternoon.

* * *

As Catherine finished dressing up for the evening, a servant knocks on the door and tells her that it is time for dinner. That warm bath was incredible after such a long day, and now, she feels fully refreshed, ready to head back to the church and head on to her next assignment. She knows Alois and Shamir will probably ask her plenty of questions when she gets back, and Seteth is going to chastise her for being so reckless without doing any proper investigation first, guess coming out of a near-death experience has a small price, one that she’ll gladly pay if it means she gets to live another day.

After she closed the door to her room, she’s greeted by Linhardt who was just walking down the hallway leading to the dining room. Catherine thanked him for healing her, and the boy answered that it was no big deal.

“If there’s any way to repay you, I will don’t hesitate to ask me anything!” Catherine said.

“Well, since we’re on the subject, can you give me ten minutes with...”

“No,” she answered, “I take back what I said, I mean anything but that,”

“Typical,” he muttered, “Fine, I’ll remember that you owe me a favor,”

“Well, I owe both you, and him, of course,”

* * *

They both entered the dining hall and are greeted with a variety of delectable cuisine, prepared by the head chef with the help of Dedue, who insisted to assist in the kitchen. The meals were especially delicious, they’ve been staying at Fort Duran for only one night before they plan to go back to their respective regions the day after tomorrow, but so far, Ashe has been perhaps the most wonderful host they’ve ever seen in their entire lives. Perhaps too wonderful…

“This isn’t a ploy to fatten us so you could drink our blood, right?” Catherine asked, “Cause if you want mine, all you have to do is ask, you know?”

“Oh, no, no, it’s not like that!” Ashe chuckled, “As you can see, I don’t have many guests in this fortress, so whenever I have some, I always bring out my best!”

“Man, this place gotta be really old,” Caspar commented, “And really big too! How many rooms are there in here?”

“Hmm… I never actually counted them, probably around 20 or so,” he answered, “Minus the ones in the east wing, of course, that place is off-limits,”

“Why did you close the east wing?” Linhardt asked.

“Well, uh… it’s kind of considered as a holy place?” Ashe said, “That’s where the five saints usually sleep whenever they visit me here…”

Dimitri suddenly choked and dropped his utensils when he heard those words coming from Ashe’s mouth, Dedue quickly tries to help him. Both Catherine and Linhardt simply sat in awe after hearing such revelations.

“The five saints… Seiros, Macuil, Cethleann, Indech, and Cichol… they all slept in this fortress??” Catherine asked, “Forgive me, Ashe, but from what you said… this place is maybe just as holy as the monastery itself…”

“It probably is, but we can’t tell people that,” Ashe answered, “To keep my identity secret, no one can know about the real history of House Duran, that’s why I sealed off the east wing so nobody can go there,”

“Surely a place that large needs cleaning on certain occasions,” Linhardt argued, “How about if we help you by…”

“Nice try, Linhardt, but that’s not going to happen,” he said, “I do all the cleaning on the east wing! It’s really fun and relaxing!”

“Well, can’t argue with that, I was planning to just do my research and let the rest of you do the cleaning anyway…”

As the night goes on, the six of them continue to dine inside the large dining hall, which is filled with portraits of the saints along with various depictions of “Lord Duran”. Linhardt looked around a bit, seeing just exactly how off Ashe’s portrait with the real person. Almost every one of the paintings depicts him as a tall young man with long grey hair and no freckles on his face, except for one. He stared a bit closer at the painting, it was a piece of Cethleann and Duran at the garden together. Not only does it depicts Ashe as a young boy like he is right now, but it also shows Cethleann as a young girl.

How strange… he feels as though he’s seen this face somewhere before…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to thank each and every one of you for your kind comments on the last chapter  
> It's really fun to read them, it really is, so, thank you for your interest in this story.
> 
> Next week update will be one chapter only, and as a little bonus, I think I could give you guys the title.  
> It's going to be called "The Blade Breaker", so you know who's it going to be about...  
> Let's just say Ashe might have a bit more involvement with something that happened around 21 years ago...
> 
> Anyway, it's Animal Crossing release week, yay! I hope you guys have fun playing the game!  
> As for me... the store delayed my pre-order for some reason so they won't ship out until next week...  
> I couldn't even be mad about it, things are pretty tough for all of us right now, so all I could do is just try to be patient.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Kudos, comments, and bookmarks are always appreciated!  
> [Twitter](https://www.twitter.com/heytenenbaum) | [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/heytenenbaum)


	5. The Blade-Breaker

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been another rough few days for the world, but we must not give up  
> Keep holding on to your hopes & dreams, we will get through this and be stronger than ever  
> I'll see you all down below, for now, enjoy this newest chapter

“Sitri… my dear Sitri…, how am I going to get through all of this without you?”

It’s been a tiresome day for Jeralt, to say the least. After the birth of his child, and the subsequent death of his wife, he took a short break from his duties. Alois was more than happy to fill in the gaps left behind by his absence, so he didn’t really miss anything. But today, he was called for an emergency task near the sealed forest. Most of the knights and their leaders are out on duty in various regions of Fodlan, and so they need all the help they could get. When everything was done, Jeralt returned to the monastery, not without a few bruises and scars, picked up Byleth from the kind nuns who volunteered to look after them, and returned to his chambers.

How many days has it been since she’s gone? Two and a half weeks, if he counted it right. He could never forget that day, returning to the monastery after finishing up a task at the nearby village, only to find that his wife is gone, and the child she died giving birth to seems a little bit strange. The baby doesn’t cry or laugh, no matter what he does, and when he tried to listen to their chest, there was no heartbeat to be found. He feels something is truly amiss, and he began to grow suspicious of the woman who helped his wife during the labor process, Lady Rhea herself.

He stared at his child, lying on the cradle, sleeping soundly and not making any sound at all, just like they usually do. This… this isn’t right, he said to himself. This child… they shouldn’t be here right now, not under the watchful eye of the almighty Archbishop of the Church of Seiros. Lady Rhea saved his life, and he would never forget everything she’s done, but after what happened since… he feels as though he couldn’t trust that woman anymore. He has to find a way to escape, he has to run as far as he could. It won’t be easy, Lady Rhea won’t accept his retirement because of… that thing she gave her, so he needs to find an opportunity to run away with Byleth.

He lays in his bed, thinking about what he should do next, when all of a sudden, he wakes up to the sound of people shouting outside of his quarters.

“FIRE!! FIRE!! EVERYBODY HEAD TO SAFETY NOW!!”

A fire? Here? In the monastery? He quickly opens his door and looked outside to see the night sky filled with smoke, there truly is a fire at the monastery. The other knights scrambled towards safety right near the gate of the monastery. The fire has reached this part of the knight’s quarters. Quickly, Jeralt took Byleth on his arm and heads toward the gate. But after a few seconds, he realized something.

This, this is the opportunity he was looking for. A chance to finally escape and took his child out from this place for good. He couldn’t be seen with this child at the gates of the monastery, no, he has to run somewhere else and hide them away someplace safe. He decided to head towards the fire instead, hoping that he would find a way to head down to the village and hide the child there. Then, he would return to the monastery and tell the Archbishop that the child had died in the fire.

As Jeralt ran towards the center of the fire, he made a turn and headed towards a part of the sealed forest that he knows has a shortcut to the village. As everyone was running away, Jeralt saw something strange, or someone. A child, a student of the officer’s academy, heading towards the fire at an astonishing speed. He was so fast that the fire made way for him to enter inside the burning building. As the student disappeared inside the fire, Jeralt turns his attention back to the matter at hand and ran to the forest.

* * *

“Captain! Captain!! I have some good news!”

Jeralt woke up late at night at his office, having worked too much again, it seems. He didn’t even have the chance to drink a single glass to accompany him with his paperwork, what a shame. The voice of certain someone suddenly wakes him up from his temporary nap. It was Alois, bursting through the door to his office.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were sleeping…” Alois said, “My apologies, perhaps this can wait in the morning…”

“It’s fine, Alois, I was just heading back to my quarters anyway,” Jeralt answered, “What’s the matter now?”

“It’s Catherine, sir!” Alois said with a smile on his face, “She’s alive and well! The reinforcements came at the right time, and she was saved! Although it was a close call!”

The entire affair began this morning when Seteth decided to inspect a detailed map of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. Realizing that the village Catherine had departed to investigate in the early morning was nonexistent, he quickly sent out a messenger to the stops Catherine would make, and to the nearby region lords as well, hoping that they would stop her from reaching the village. When the afternoon came, and the night broke out with still no news of her mission, they feared the worst has happened. Until now, of course.

“She’s alive? Who rescued her?” Jeralt asked.

“It was our students, can you believe it?” Alois said, “They’re from the Blue Lions house! Crown Prince Dimitri, Dedue, Caspar, and that sleepy boy Linhardt were staying at a place nearby and came to the rescue once they heard the news!”

“Well, I guess those brats are useful for something after all,” he answered, “Where is she now?”

“At Fort Duran, those kids were staying there by the invitation of Lord Duran, it seems. The messenger came a bit late, but she was rescued and is now recovering at the fortress,”

“Did you just say Fort Duran? Lord Duran and those kids came to her aid?” Jeralt asked.

“Yes, is there something wrong, Captain?”

“No, it’s just… I’ve met Lord Duran a long time ago…” he answered, “I haven’t seen him since, I was just wondering what he’s up to lately…”

“Oh, well then you could probably ask Catherine about it!” Alois said, “She’s coming back here tomorrow, it looks like she recovered at a fast pace thanks to Linhardt’s healing abilities,”

“That’s good to hear...” Jeralt said, “Was that all?”

“Yes, that is all,” he answered, “I bid you good night, Captain! I hope you get proper sleep after this! Sleep tight, and don’t let the bed bugs bite!”

As Alois left the office laughing at his own joke, Jeralt began to tidy up his desk and turned off the candles inside his office. He locked the door and heads to his quarter, wanting to get a few hours of sleep so he could think straight when he talks with Catherine tomorrow.

* * *

Finally alone in the forest with just his child, Jeralt breathed a sigh of relief. He looked back at Garreg Mach, the fire is still at large as the knights and other residents of the monastery tries to extinguish it. He kept on walking while thinking about what he should do next. By this point, the fire could have reached his quarters, good, which means he could use that to fake Byleth’s death. However, he himself would have to return to the monastery to explain it to Lady Rhea. The fire was large, yes, but it wasn’t sufficient enough to burn his entire body, and so, if he just disappeared all of a sudden with his child, Lady Rhea would have reason to suspect that they didn’t die in the fire.

He has to return there, but first, he needs to keep his child at a safe place somewhere. He knew a couple of good friends in the village, mainly the barkeep at the tavern he frequently visited. Maybe he could take care of the baby for a day or two until he could get out of Rhea’s grasp after reporting the baby’s supposed death. He kept on walking, trying to find the path to the village he usually used as a shortcut, but after searching for it for a few minutes, he realized something.

That large tree... it must’ve fallen off at some point in the past moon, and now, it’s blocking the shortcut path towards the village. It was a pretty large tree, and it would take some time for him to remove it, time that he doesn’t exactly have. At any given moment, Lady Rhea will hear about the fire and the extent it has reached, she will quickly go to Jeralt’s quarters and try to investigate the entire thing by herself. He needs to be there when that happens, or he will lose this chance to escape with his child in tow.

He heard a noise coming nearby, animals were scattering out from the forest, scared of something in there. Was it a bear? Jeralt thought as the noise became louder. He could sense something moving inside, it seemed to be a frightening creature. He put down his baby and took out his sword, feeling that whatever is inside the forest is now moving closer towards them both...

* * *

The next morning, Jeralt woke up from his bed and began his morning routine. His child greeted him as they both ate breakfast together. Although the students are on recess this week, the teachers aren’t, they are required to stay on monastery grounds to discuss the upcoming curriculum for the moons to come. Byleth has been especially busy lately, attending daily faculty meetings with Manuela, Hanneman, and Seteth. In the afternoon, Jeralt would usually find them fishing in the pond, trying to catch a break. In the middle of eating their meal, he tries to start a conversation with the quiet one.

“So, your students rescued Catherine from that mess yesterday,” he said.

“They did, I heard that from Seteth,” Byleth answered, shoving a spoonful of porridge into their mouth.

“Well, how do you feel right now? Knowing those brats of yours manage to rise to the occasion?”

“I’m proud of them,” they said with an empty expression as usual, “I will honor them in front of my other students when class starts again next week...”

As they finished their breakfast, the gatekeeper came into the dining hall, giving news to Jeralt that Catherine has finally returned to the monastery. Jeralt thanked the young man and told his child to have a good day before walking to the gates of the monastery. Catherine was already there, riding on a horse, some of the knights hugging her, thinking that they have lost her for good. She chuckled at the idea, feeling glad to finally return to the arms of her comrades. She was a bit surprised to find Jeralt there, thinking that this isn’t what he usually does. The man told her that he was glad she made it out alive and asked her to come to his office once she’s done giving her report to Lady Rhea.

* * *

“I must say, it was quite a shock hearing you being in so much trouble,” Jeralt said, pouring a glass of drink for him and Catherine, ”If it weren’t for those kids, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now...”

“I know,” Catherine answered, ”Lady Rhea gave me a bit of scolding for it, but as usual, she was pretty kind enough to let me continue serving her, I’d like to think Seteth would beg the differ...”

“Yes, that’s what he usually does,” he said, handing over a glass of drink to Catherine.

“Jeralt, it’s still early in the morning,”

“Is it? I didn’t look at the time,” he answered, sipping his cold glass of drink, ”Well, anyway, I need to talk to you about something, you were rescued by those kids and then brought to Fort Duran, correct?”

“Yes? They were staying there until tomorrow...” Catherine said, trying to caution her answer, ”Is there something wrong?”

“I’d like to tell you a story about that place,” he answered, ”That’s actually where me and my child’s journey began a long time ago...”

“At Fort Duran? That’s interesting...”

“Catherine, it’s okay to let your guard down for now,” Jeralt said, ”I know everything about the grey-haired boy who lives forever...”

“Jeralt... I’m surprised you knew about Ashe...” Catherine said, ”I couldn’t believe it at first, and I tried to deny it as long as I could, but when I asked Lady Rhea about it... that’s when I finally start to believe everything...”

“I feel the same way as you do,” he answered, ”Our story began a long time ago after I left the monastery, I had just lost both my wife and my child. But then I’ve managed to fall in love again with a beautiful woman, needless to say, losing both of your loved ones during childbirth takes a toll on you...”

* * *

Jeralt points his sword at the young boy who just came out from the woods. The boy’s mouth was stained with blood, he wasn’t scared at him, just startled, but also cautious. The boy wiped the blood off his mouth and smiled at the captain and his baby. He greeted them both and asked them what they are doing in the forest.

“We… we were simply looking for a safe place from the fire,” Jeralt lied, “You… you ran into that fire alone, and now… what are you doing here?”

“Replenishing my strength,” he answered, “Rescuing all those people from the fire wasn’t exactly easy, so I need to eat a bit after all of that. That deer was pretty delicious, maybe I’ll come back later and butcher the meat for tomorrow’s dinner…”

“You… did you rescue people from that fire? But there isn’t a single burn or scratch on your skin!”

“My skin is really strong,” he answered, “Fire or regular weapon can’t hurt me, even if you strike that sword at me, it will just break into small pieces,”

“Who… who are you exactly?” Jeralt asked.

“Well, I guess there’s no point hiding this from you, we both have our own secrets after all,” he smiled, "At the monastery, I’m just another regular student of the Blue Lions House, a distant nephew of Lord Duran, but in reality, I am Lord Duran, an ally of the saints and Faerghus, I’ve been living for more than a thousand year…”

Jeralt stood in silent, still pointing his blade at the boy, although he explained that it was useless anyway, he felt like he should still stay on guard since the boy could be lying.

“You didn’t seem surprised by what I just said,” Duran said, “Maybe because in a way, you’re sort of like me, been here long enough to know everything about the world…”

“What are you talking about?”

“You never really noticed me haven’t you, captain?” he answered, “In fact, you never really noticed the students at all, I figured that out on my second time here, actually. Three years after you joined the knights, I enrolled at the academy, twenty years later, I came back again. I was scared you would recognize me, but that never happened, and after another twenty years, when I came back for the third time, you still have the same face as before, and still… you never recognized me…”

“So you knew,” Jeralt sighed, lowering his sword, walking towards the fallen tree and sat down on it, “Well, you got that right, I never paid attention to you brats… but I guess you’re not actually a brat, huh?”

“No, I’m not,” he answered, sitting down next to Jeralt, “I’m sorry about your wife, I’ve heard what happened from Lady Rhea, that baby must be little Byleth, huh?”

“Yes, that’s them,” he answered, looking at his sleeping child laying inside the basket he brought from his quarters. What is he going to do now, he thought, being found by an immortal like him who probably works for Lady Rhea.

“So, Captain, why were you running away from Lady Rhea?”

“I told you, we were trying to look for a safe place from the fire…”

“No, you weren’t,” Duran said, “It would be more logical if you went with the other knights to the front gate, but you went straight near the fire and took this path instead. I know about the shortcut leading to the village, I used it many times, so it’s clear that you were trying to get to the village for some reason…”

At this point, Jeralt was feeling too tired of making up any more excuses, and so, he confessed everything to the boy sitting next to him. He told him about his mistrust of Lady Rhea, about the baby’s strange silence, and then just how much he missed his wife and his pledge of finding out what happened to her during that day.

“I understand what you’re going through, Captain,” Duran said, “I’ve trusted and devoted myself to Lady Rhea, that is to an extent, of course. And I completely understand why you don’t trust her anymore…”

“Well, that’s that,” Jeralt said, standing up, “We should head back to the monastery now, I guess you’re planning to tell everything to Lady Rhea, correct?”

“No, I’m not going to tell her a thing,” he answered, “Give the baby to me, let me take them to Fort Duran where they’ll be taken care of while you settle things here,”

“What?” Jeralt asked, seemingly surprised by the boy’s answer, “You… why are you doing this? You’re supposed to be part of the church, aren’t you? You said it yourself! You’ve devoted yourself to her…”

“To an extent,” Duran said, “Look, I won’t lie to you, we’ve both been with her long enough to know something is up, and from what you told me, she is planning something with your child and I don’t know what it is, I’m not taking any chances, so let me help you, please,”

Duran pleads with Jeralt to let him take the baby instead, but the captain kept hesitating, thinking that it won’t be safe to leave his child with this immortal, blood-drinking creature. But what choice does he have now? He couldn’t go to the village without being seen by anyone thanks to the blocked path, and the boy already knows his intentions, so returning to the monastery would be an even bigger risk for the two of them. He hesitated, trying to think clearly for a few minutes, before finally making his decision.

Jeralt looks at Byleth for a moment, hoping that this wouldn’t be their last encounter. He kissed the baby on the foreheads and then proceeded to give them to Lord Duran. The boy in front of him smiled, carrying the young baby on his arms.

“Wise choice,” he said, “I’ll take him to my fortress on the south of Faerghus, riding a horse or a carriage there would take a while, so I’m just going to run. Don’t worry, I’ll be back before anyone even noticed me I’m gone, I’m telling you this in case we won’t be able to talk anymore inside since she’s going to be watching you now,”

“You’re right…” Jeralt said, “It will take me around a moon or less to settle things down here, and then I could pick them up at your fortress?”

“Correct, and remember, don’t be suspicious!” Duran said, “She could instantly tell a malicious intent in an instant, so just stay calm and don’t overdo it!”

“Duran, I… we are grateful for your assistance,” Jeralt said.

“No worries, captain,” he answered, looking at the young and silent child, “No worries, little one,”

And just like that, everything was set in motion.

Jeralt returned to the monastery, alone, leaving his child behind with the mysterious Duran. Unsurprisingly, Lady Rhea was there, overseeing the knights extinguishing the fire that had gone out in their quarters. When she saw Jeralt’s face, she quickly ran towards him, but her expression changed when she noticed that the baby wasn’t there. Jeralt cried of fake tears, explaining what had “happened” with the child, and as Lady Rhea heard the story, she quickly broke down to tears as well.

The next day, while eating his breakfast in the dining hall, he noticed that Duran was there, sitting among his blue lions classmate. They shared a look at each other, although no words were exchanged, they both understand the message that they sent to each other: “The deed is done.”

About a week later, Jeralt came to Lady Rhea, saying that he wanted to leave the knights. He has lost too much in this monastery, and he feels like he doesn’t belong here anymore. Rhea wanted to protest, she wants to keep her most trusted knight by her side, but at the same time, she understood exactly how he felt, to have lost your family in a short period just like that. And so, remembering what she felt long ago when she lost her own family, she grants him his wish and asked him to settle down any unfinished business or mission with the knights by next week so that he may leave.

When it was time to leave, Jeralt rode on his horse and ventured north to the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. He had heard about the Duran territory, but never actually got a chance to venture it. As he entered the place, he found that it was no ordinary place, unlike he’s ever seen before. The villagers were quite prosperous, it seems, owning large houses of their own, and there were barely signs of poverty on the streets. He rode his horse down the road until he reached the large fortress located on top of the hill, Fort Duran.

He knocked on the front gate, and when he introduced himself, one of the gatekeepers quickly went into the fortress before opening the gates. The courtyard was wonderful, he thought, decorated with plenty of greens and colors from the assortment of flowers. A gentlemen came to greet him, saying he’s the head butler. He escorted him to the second floor where his child has been staying.

When Jeralt saw Byleth again for the first time in two weeks, he gave his child a warm hug. They’re not crying or happy, of course, as usual. But Jeralt knew deep down inside, they’re feeling something, although they are unable to express it as a normal baby would.

The next day, Jeralt and his child said their goodbyes to Fort Duran and head out on their journey. It’s a new chapter for the two of them, one that they hope would lead to a happy ending…

* * *

“And so, you see…” Jeralt said, “That’s how Lord Duran helped me and my kid…”

“I never knew that story before,” Catherine said, “So, he saw you wandering in the streets with your child, and recognized you as the former Captain Jeralt because he attended Garreg Mach that year. And then he invited you both to stay at the castle, spilling the beans about his identity, and helped you both get back on your feet?”

“That’s correct, why are you repeating it to me?”

“I’m sorry, it’s just… this entire thing with Ashe, it’s still a bit hard to imagine…”

“That’s fine, just try to wrap your head around it,” he said, “The sooner you could come to terms with it, the better,”

“Captain, oh captain?” a voice said from the hallway, it was Alois, who knocked on his door, “May I come in?”

“Yes, go right ahead, Alois,”

“Good morning capta- oh, Catherine! I didn’t know you were here!” Alois said, noticing the knight sitting on Jeralt’s sofa, “Anyhow, captain, Lady Rhea wanted to meet with you, it’s about next month’s mission,”

“I better go,” Catherine said, “Thanks for the talk, Jeralt, it was nice, see you again later,”

“Bye Catherine, it was nice talking with you too,” Jeralt smiled.

Catherine left the captain’s quarters and head on downstairs to the training grounds, wanting to meet with Shamir who usually trains with Cyril at these hours. She looked back at Captain Jeralt’s office, his story… there were holes in it, many, many holes. He stated plenty of facts that she knew were untrue at the time, but everytime she noticed one, she couldn’t bring herself up to question the authenticity of it. What are you hiding, Captain? She asked on her mind. A man like him must have many secrets inside his life, regarding both himself and his child, but that could wait for later, maybe when Jeralt had too much to drink as usual…

* * *

“I better see her if it’s about the mission schedule,” Jeralt said, “Do you know what’s it about?”

“Something about an abandoned chapel, that’s what I’ve heard,” Alois answered, “I’m sure she’ll give you the full details!”

“Good,” he said, finishing his drink, “I’ll see her now, then…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, how's everyone doing? I hope you're all well and healthy  
> With everything that's been going on lately, I figured you might need some hopeful words to start things off  
> I hope it helps.
> 
> Alright, down to business then, this was pretty fun to write, although I've had a bit of difficulty about where to put this part in the main storyline, so I hope I didn't make any mistake.  
> Next chapter will be the last one before we go to timeskip, meaning we'll discuss what will happen next in chapter 7, and the reunion will happen in chapter 8
> 
> Thanks for reading! Kudos, bookmarks, and comments are always appreciated!  
> [Twitter](https://www.twitter.com/heytenenbaum) | [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/heytenenbaum)


	6. The Lovers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone is healthy and alright  
> Thanks for being here, I really appreciate it  
> I'll see you in a bit  
> For now, enjoy this newest chapter

As an advisor to the monarch, Ashe is responsible for Dimitri’s education on how to rule when he rises to the throne. The job used to be pretty simple, he would meet with the young prince once every a couple of months to teach him lessons about history and how the past monarchs of Faerghus handled various crises and situations in their own terms. However, with the death of King Lambert, Ashe’s presence and guidance became even more needed since he’s the only one who could educate the prince now. When they started attending Garreg Mach, they mapped out their tutoring plans and schedule together. Ashe would teach Dimitri every Wednesday night, after dinner, and on Sunday morning.

Today, on Sunday, he picked up some of his books and notes and heads to the library on the second floor to meet with Dimitri. On the way there, he noticed his professor, sitting on the bench in front of the dormitories, quietly looking at the skies.

Poor professor, it’s been two weeks since Captain Jeralt’s death in the abandoned chapel. Stabbed right in the back with a strange dagger, according to Manuela. Apparently, the one who did it was Monica, that girl they rescued alongside Flayn. He should’ve known that something was up, when Seteth pointed out that she acted a bit differently than he noticed last year and kept clinging onto Edelgard, that should’ve been a red flag for him. Yet, none of the warning signs ever crossed his mind as something malicious. He thought that her change of personality was still understandable since she’s been in captivity for almost a year.

He sighed, wanting to sit down for a bit and chat with the professor, but he has no time for that now, he’s late for his lesson with Dimitri. Maybe he could use a bit of his enhanced speed to get to the library faster?

* * *

“Sorry, I’m late!” Ashe said, greeting Dimitri, who seems to be focusing on the book he’s reading, “I ran as fast as I could! Let’s start today’s lesson, your highness! Um… your highness?”

That was when Ashe realized that Dimitri wasn’t reading, he was looking down because he was sleeping. He wanted to wake him up but thought that would probably be rude. So, instead, he browsed through their lesson plan again and waited for another fifteen minutes before deciding to wake him up. Fortunately, Dimitri woke up just around seven minutes after Ashe arrived. He apologized to his teacher for sleeping before their lesson, trying to explain that he didn’t manage to get enough sleep last night.

“Was it because of… you know…” Ashe asked.

“Yes, unfortunately…” Dimitri answered, “Once again, they were very busy on a Saturday night…”

* * *

It all began a few moons ago when they were given the task to retrieve a stolen relic from House Gautier. The relic was stolen by none other than Miklan Gautier, Sylvain’s older brother who didn’t possess a crest and thrown out from the family. The battle ended with sorrows from all sides, the relic that Miklan stole turned him into a demonic beast, and as a result, they had to put him down. Sylvain didn’t look like he was sad, but Ashe knew he held both sorrows and regret inside his heart, he could feel it within him. They proceeded to return to the monastery after the affair ended.

The very next morning, Ashe went to the dining hall to eat some breakfast. Sylvain was there, along with a few of their classmates. Again, he didn’t express anything other than his usual smile on his face, but this time, there was something different about him.

Unfortunately, one of the perks (and disadvantages) of being a vampire is his incredibly strong senses, Ashe could smell, see, and hear things from far away distances, just like an animal would. And this time, he sensed that Sylvain smelled a bit different than usual, and that smell was coming off from his…

Oh no…

Despite all the flirting and the schmoozing Sylvain did with the women of the monastery, he remained a virgin. Something which he never told anyone. Most of the academy always assumed him for the worst, a womanizer who sleeps around with girls left and right. But Ashe knows that’s not true, he knew the full story of his upbringing, and how he hides his genius mind, and how he used girls as a way to distract himself from the future responsibility that he’s expected to rise: marry another noble and have children with crests.

But today, that all changed, he finally managed to cross a line that Ashe never thought he would in a million years. He sat down, but remain cautious of Sylvain, and then he looked at Dimitri sitting next to Mercedes. The young prince seems a bit off-place for today, looking like he’s tired. His attention returned to Sylvain, their rooms are next to each other, and the walls between their rooms aren’t exactly that thick. Unfortunately, it was thin enough to hear the noises from the room next door…

“Um… Ashe? What’s with that look you’re giving me?” Sylvain asked.

“W-what? Uh… it’s nothing!” Ashe said, trying to cover himself, “It’s just that, well… you know… after yesterday, I thought you would be more…”

“Sadder?” Sylvain asked, “No, don’t worry about it, I’m fine, I mean, I’m not exactly fine, but Miklan and I were never really that close, so… don’t worry about me,”

“Do you need to talk to someone about it, Sylvain?” Annette asked, “Me and Mercie could always listen to your troubles! That is if you don’t start messing around…”

“It’s alright, I’m fine now,” he answered, “I talked with someone last night, and they… they helped me a lot…”

Sure you talked, buddy, sure you do.

“Anyway, what’s with that face, your highness?” Sylvain asked, noticing Dimitri’s tired face, “You didn’t get a good sleep last night?”

“No, I didn’t, and you know exactly why, Sylvain,” Dimitri answered, “Please meet with me later, I need to have a proper discussion with you…”

“Uh… sure thing…” he said, looking a bit nervous.

“Oh, where are Felix and Ingrid?” Mercedes asked, “It’s not like them to miss breakfast…”

Just as Mercedes said that both Ingrid and Felix suddenly came through the door, apologizing for being late. For some reason, Felix took longer to prepare this morning. Annette said that it’s alright and they should get some food before breakfast hours are over. As they both walked to the serving table, Ashe smelled something familiar coming off of Felix. It smells almost exactly like…

No.

No, this could not be happening. No.

“Ashe, are you alright?” Flayn asked, “You’ve been acting strangely since coming here, maybe you should take a rest for the day…”

“No, I’m fine, Flayn! Honest, I’m really fine!” Ashe answered, “It’s just… there’s a lot on my mind right now, and I… I need some time to process everything…”

* * *

Sylvain received a stern reprimand from Dimitri that day, he went easy with him since his brother just died at their hands and all, but it was still a long lecture from the future king himself. Ashe didn’t know what to do, should he tell Dimitri about it? Or should he keep it a secret from him? He didn’t know whether what happened last night was a one-time thing, or it will eventually continue. And so, he decided to keep it a secret out of respect to the new couple.

The next Sunday, he spilled everything to Dimitri when he noticed the prince isn’t getting enough sleep again. Shocked doesn’t even begin to describe how Dimitri looked that day after finding out everything. It was more like he felt traumatized after realizing what he’s been hearing this whole time. It was one thing if Sylvain were hitting up some unknown girl that Dimitri will never meet or see, but with Felix? This complicates things even further…

“Do you know what you’ve just done?” Dimitri asked, “Now everytime I hear that sound, the image of Felix and Sylvain on top of each other will play out in my mind, oh goddess, spare me!”

“I-I’m sorry about that, your highness!” Ashe said, “For the record, I didn’t know this would have that kind of effect on you! Oh, if only I could turn back the clock and not tell you about it…”

At the back of the library, Byleth, who’s reading a book about the history of Fodlan’s three separate territories, suddenly sneezed. Lysithea asked if they had a cold or something, but they answered that it was just a breeze, probably.

“Ashe, it’s… it’s fine,” Dimitri sighed, “It’s not your fault in any way, and I crossed the line when I got mad at you, I’m sorry…”

“No, you were right to be angry, I mean imagining them squirming on top of each other with their naked bo…”

“Please do not describe any further, I’ve had just enough on my plate,” he said, “It’s just that… I had sort of thought they would get together eventually, but it feels like an unrealistic expectation, and now, here we are…”

“What do you mean by your thought of them getting together eventually?”

“Well, they are pretty close, and the professor for some reason kept pairing them up together during battles, which made them even closer,” Dimitri answered, “But my thoughts about it started a long time ago when we were kids when they made that promise…”

“Promise? They made a childhood promise?”

“I wasn’t supposed to be there when it happened, I just accidentally stumbled upon the two of them talking to each other,” he said, “We were playing in the castle yard, the three of us and Ingrid, when Felix accidentally tripped on a rock and bruised his cheek. He suddenly ran away to the nearby pond and Sylvain went to get him…”

* * *

“Hey Felix, you okay?” Sylvain said, “Your face doesn’t look like it’s hurt too bad, why don’t we get that patched up? I think Lady Cornelia is in the castle today, she could help you with that,”

“I don’t want to, go away!” Felix said, “Just… leave me alone, please!”

“What’s with you today? Are you… wait, are you crying? Felix, is there something wrong? Talk to me,”

“It’s just… I don’t need any help,” he answered, taking off his gloves, showing Sylvain a healed scratch mark on his hand, “See, it will heal just fine, so stop worrying and leave me,”

“Wait, where did you get that other scar?”

“A few days ago when I was playing ball in my backyard,” Felix said, “There was nobody to help me, my father wasn’t around, and Glenn kept spending his time here, so I just kept it to myself…”

“Felix… you’re lonely, I get it…” Sylvain answered, “My father isn’t helping a lot either, and Miklan, well… you know what he’s like…”

“So, we only have our own to rely on…” Felix answered, “We’re going to be alone until the end…”

* * *

“I didn’t hear the entire conversation, but it must’ve been pretty emotional for them to make that promise,” Dimitri said, “It was at this point, I went to get the two of them, and when I arrived…”

* * *

“No, you’re not going to be alone, and neither am I…” Sylvain said.

“But you just said that we’re both lonely,” Felix argued.

“From our family, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t rely on each other!” he smiled, standing up from the ground, “Let’s… let’s make a promise together, okay?”

“A promise? What kind of promise?”

“One that will ensure we’ll both never be lonely again, ever,” he said, “I promise to stick with you til the very end! And you have to promise me the same too!”

“Okay,” Felix smiled, “I promise to stick with you too until the end, and we’ll be with each other until we die together!”

“Sounds like a good plan!” he said, hugging his friend in his arms, “Come on, let’s get back to the others, they must be pretty worried about us…”

* * *

"I quickly hurried back when I noticed they were coming my way, I don’t want to ruin the moment,” Dimitri chuckled, “I even told Ingrid not to tell them where I was going, I think even until now, she doesn’t know why I asked her to do that,”

“So they’ve been in love with each other since the start…” Ashe said, “I think you shouldn’t tell them that you knew, though…”

“Hm? Why not?”

“Well, I think they’re just not ready yet,” he answered, “They didn’t know they’re in love with each other until last night, as we’re speaking right now, they’re trying to figure out the complicated feelings inside their heart, whether they’ll prevail over it, or break up, we need to give them some time…”

“In other words, let’s not ruin the moment,” Dimitri said, “Well, you are my advisor, and the prince thought that it was excellent advice, so the monarchy will heed the advisor’s word…”

“That is an excellent choice, your highness,” Ashe smiled, “Oh, and, um… there might be a chance that those late-night noises might continue, are you, um… are you going to be okay with it?”

“Well… if it’s for true love, then perhaps yes,” he said, “But as the leader of the house and future king, I have to get proper sleep, so, if the noises gets too annoying, I might stay the night in someone else’s room, even if I have to sleep on the floor…”

“Oh no… you could always stay in mine, your highness! I never sleep, so you could use the bed!”

“Thank you for the offer, but honestly, I couldn’t sleep knowing there’s someone else awake there, it’s just a habit of mine,” Dimitri answered, “Claude’s room should suffice, of course, I have to explain to him what’s going on, but… it’ll be alright, I think…”

* * *

In the present day, Ashe looked at Dimitri, who seemed pretty tired from staying up all night. Wasn’t he planning to stay at Claude’s room whenever that noise started again? Dimitri answered that he slept in his room last night despite the ruckus, and Ashe quickly asked why he would do that knowing the risk involved.

“Well, um… Ashe, uh… I’ve been thinking a lot about this…” Dimitri said, his face began to blush, “But… I don’t think I could stay in Claude’s room anymore…”

“Huh? Is something the matter, your highness?” Ashe asked.

“The truth is that… well… it’s really hard to explain,” he answered, looking down, feeling embarrassed of himself.

It took a moment for Ashe, but he managed to figure out what’s happening with his pupil. Ah, young love… to think that Sylvain and Felix managed to cause something like this by accident. And then he realized that for someone like Dimitri, the future king of Faerghus, to have feelings for Claude, the future leader of the Leicester alliance means trouble, a lot of trouble regarding their respective social statuses.

The worst thing he could imagine right now is the two of them getting married in the future and reunite both Faerghus and Leicester together. Now, that’s not exactly bad, that’s a really good thing for two former feuding territories to settle their differences and reunite together because of love. The thing he’s worried about is that it would mean the loud noises Sylvain and Felix made in the middle of the night, like it or not, would be responsible for securing continental peace.

But he’s getting ahead of himself, the thing he should be doing right now isn’t daydreaming! He should be advising his king on how to proceed with his feelings.

“Your highness, I understand…” Ashe said, “You are still just a young boy, after all, trying to figure out a lot of things about yourself, it’s alright to have a crush with someone else…”

“I know, I know, but I kept thinking about what it would mean for the future,” Dimitri said, “I mean, we’re going to rule our own lands in the future, right? W-what if it didn’t work out and we accidentally started a war? Or what if it worked out? Does that mean we’re going to have a long-distance relationship while we both fulfill our duties?”

Ah, so now it’s Dimitri who’s thinking ahead of himself.

“It’s alright, your highness,” Ashe said, holding his pupil’s hand, “You’re not going to start a war together, I won’t let it happen, but you’re both still in school, and you’re not going to take the throne for a while, and until that day comes, I want you to have as much fun as possible!”

“F-fun? You mean like Sylvain and Felix?”

“What? No! I mean, yes? Uh… that’s not what I was exactly going for…” he answered, “If you want to do that one day, then it’s none of my business, but for now, try something a bit more subtle…”

“Subtle?”

“Talk to him, drink some tea together, spend time with each other! You need to be certain with your feeling if you want this to work, and when you do, you will tell him of your feelings and see what comes next…”

“A-and when will such time comes?”

“Who knows, it could be a few days from now, next week, in the next moon, or maybe in five years. But you’re the only one who knows if the time is right…”

“I… I think you’re right… thank you for the advice, Ashe…” Dimitri said, “I gotta say, I wasn’t expecting something like that from you, I mean, from the outside, you don’t look like you’re experienced in something like this…”

“Well, looks can be deceiving, your highness,” Ashe chuckled, “There was once a time where I became someone like Sylvain, no, I was far worse than him, to be honest… let’s not imagine that…”

“I think that’s for the best…”

“And with that, I end my lesson for today,” Ashe said, closing his book, “Now, practiced what I told you, and we’ll meet again on Wednesday here for our next lesson,”

“Yes, I shall ask Claude to drink tea with me right now! Thank you for your help, Ashe! You greatly boosted my confi…”

Dimitri suddenly dropped in the middle of his statement, Ashe quickly came to him, seeing that he was just pretty exhausted. He woke up the young prince and helped him get back on his own feet.

“Maybe ask him for coffee instead, your highness?” Ashe asked.

“P-perhaps you are right…” Dimitri said, “Come on, help me find Dedue, please…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is meant to be focused on a couple of the ships that I've been tagging  
> And yes, Dimitri is extremely annoyed by two hormonal teenagers boning each other in the next room, so...  
> But that promise is what started it all, so I thought what if Dimitri knew about it and secretly thought that the two of them would end up together one day?  
> He wasn't exactly surprised when it happened, but this isn't the way he wanted it to happen lol
> 
> Thanks for reading!  
> Kudos, comments, and bookmarks are always appreciated!  
> [Twitter](https://www.twitter.com/heytenenbaum) | [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/heytenenbaum)


	7. The Monster (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone is alright today  
> Let's just sit at home quietly and hope for the better  
> For now, please enjoy this new chapter!

“IS THIS SOME KIND OF TWISTED JOKE??”

That was the moment Ashe knew he screwed up, and all he could do right now was stand behind and watch as the future king of Faerghus finally lost it and began slaughtering every soldier that stood between him and the newly unmasked Flame Emperor, Edelgard.

They stood inside the holy tomb, each and everyone of the Blue Lions class members. Their duty was to witness and guard both the Professor and Lady Rhea during the special ritual held in celebration of divine revelation that the Professor received last month. It all went pretty well at first, but at a moment’s notice, the so-called Flame Emperor and the imperial army managed to infiltrate the holy tomb and attacked the people inside to take the precious crest stones stored beneath.

Ashe knew who hides beneath the mask, he could sense it. They could try to hide their face and voice from everyone, but they could never hide their true self from his incredibly strong senses. He learned a long time ago that everyone has a different smell and aura, but the Flame Emperor is more than that, there’s one other quality that made them different from anyone else: the presence of the goddess.

Long ago, back when he was still with his master, the elder gentleman taught him that although they cannot age, or get hurt by regular means, that doesn’t mean that they are invincible. There are still ways they could get hurt or die. A vampire can get hurt from a self-inflicted wound or the magical strength of the Nabateans. After the massacre at Zanado, and the years that came after, he learned that things that are made from the Nabateans, such as crest-based power and heroes relics can hurt them to an extent, although the wound will patch up in just a matter of seconds, and no matter where it hit, it will never be enough to properly kill them.

“But then, how do we die, exactly?” Ashe asked his master.

The elder gentleman smiled and gave him the answer, the Nabateans are able to hurt them, but only their maker may eliminate them from this world if she desires to do so. The only way for a vampire to be able to die is by the power of the goddess herself, he said. However, that proves to be an impossible task since after the long war, the goddess has hidden herself somewhere and fallen to slumber. So, if they desire to end their life, they would have to wait, no matter how long it takes, for the goddess to rise onto the world again.

* * *

When Ashe enrolled at the officer’s academy last year, he felt a strange feeling as soon as he stepped into the front gate, as if he should be on the defensive or something like that. He felt fear, it runs within him like never before, it’s as though something dangerous is within his vicinity, and yet he couldn’t tell what it was. He couldn’t get that feeling out of his system, and he didn’t know where it came from, that is until he met with Edelgard.

There’s something wrong with this girl, he thought to himself. She has a crest, yes, he could sense that from her, but there’s another thing inside, something dark, something that’s capable of ending him if she desires to. But he could also feel the rawness of that power inside of her, how untamed it is, and how dangerous it is. From then on, he decided to keep an eye on the future emperor, but also keeping a distance away from her.

The first time it happened was a very long time ago when he saw the sight of Nemesis, the Fell King. The man had the goddess’ crest and wields what remains of her on his hand. He quickly fell and trembled on the battlefield, unable to move as the large enemy figure began to approach him. However, Cichol came at the last minute and quickly rescues him, snapping him out from his trance, and they both quickly made their escape together. After Seiros explained to everyone what has truly happened to him, the five of them decided that Duran shouldn’t participate in any future battles that involve Nemesis anymore. Since then, until the end of the war, he was tasked in helping to defend empire territories from falling to the Fell King’s hand.

Those feelings changed with the arrival of their new professor. Again, Ashe felt the same as before, fear running inside him when he saw the young former mercenary walking inside their classroom. This person just saved Dimitri’s life, he thought, so he should be grateful to them. They emit the same power as Edelgard did, but he could feel a difference. Instead of darkness, he saw inside Edelgard’s heart, he saw light within this person. Although they have the same power, they are complete opposites of each other…

The third time it happened was when the professor uncovered the sword of the creator and began wielding it. It adds even more pressure towards him, and seeing them using it on the battlefield makes him feel like they could die at any moment’s notice. After professor Hanneman explained about the nature of the professor’s crest, he finally began to understand why that fear suddenly manifested within him. It was the goddess all along, something that was able to end his life has finally come back to this world, and now, there’s a chance that he might be able to die for real.

* * *

Ashe woke up in the middle of the night, cold sweats all over his body. It’s been three days since the incident at the holy tomb, three days since the empire declared war on the church and all of its allies, effectively plunging Fodlan into a battle for its reunification once more. After all that happened in the past few days, tonight, he finally decided that he needs to rest after years of going through without it. It’s been a rough time for all of them, and he figured it’s not going to get better anytime soon either.

He lights a candle on his desk, trying to write a bit in his diary about his thoughts. Although there’s plenty of secrets he couldn’t divulge to his friends, he always knew that his trusted diary would be there for him. Ashe has kept many records about what happened in the world, from the fall of the Nabateans, the formation of the kingdom and the alliance, and until recently, the tragedy of Duscur. But now, something else has happened, another large event like the ones he saw before, and he feels that he might need more than one book to write.

As he was writing, a knock on the door suddenly came. Who could that be, knocking at this late hour? Whoever it is, they must’ve known that he never sleeps at night due to his vampire nature. He opened the door to find Caspar standing in front of his room.

“Caspar? Can I help you with something?”

“Yeah, um… can we talk for just a bit?” he asked, “Can I come in?”

Ashe nods and lets the young boy come inside his room. He sat on the bed and began talking about his thoughts as Ashe listened from his desk. He began by telling him about a secret meeting that happened in the afternoon. All the Black Eagles students, as well as the Blue Lions and Golden Deer students who transferred from the Black Eagles house, were summoned to a small assembly room on the second floor in order to discuss what happens next.

“It was pretty scary,” Caspar said, “I mean one minute you’re a friend of the church, next thing you know, your parents are declaring war against them…”

“What happened? What did they say?”

It was a mix of reassuring thoughts and a declaration of war, Caspar answered. Seteth was the one who announced to the students that although the church is currently at war with the empire, they, who didn’t have any participation in the Flame Emperor’s yearlong agenda, are free to determine which side they belong to. This month’s lesson will be shortened to just two weeks, and after that, they have to make a decision.

“Take our degree and return to the empire,” Caspar sighed, “Or stay and fight against the invasion that’s probably going to happen at the end of the moon…”

“I figured as much,” Ashe said, “So, what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know…” he answered, “Things in the empire just escalated really quick, my old man sent me a letter asking me to just go back home and figure things out from there, but by the looks of it…”

“He’s going to ask you to fight for the empire,” Ashe sighed, “Caspar, I’m sorry to hear that…”

“Nah, don’t bother, I know he doesn’t see me as much anyway, I’m just the second son, after all!” Caspar said, “I still don’t know what I’m gonna do, but can I ask you one thing?”

“Of course, anything!”

“After we leave this place, after we go on our separate ways, if we meet again on opposite sides, you have to be the one to kill me,”

“Caspar, no! Don’t say stuff like that!”

“Hey, you’re super old, so you’ve probably done things like this before, I mean you were there when Seiros killed that big evil king dude or whatever, right?”

“Nemesis, his name was Nemesis! Gah, I still can’t believe you haven’t remembered that one…”

“Eh, I don’t pay a lot of attention in history lessons, so you know,” he chuckled, “Anyway, promise you’ll kill me if we fought each other? I mean I’m not going to be able to kill you, I could try, but I’ll just break everything, so can you do that for me?”

“I… I don’t know how to answer that…” Ashe sighed, “But fine, I just hope that day will never come…”

“Okay, good,” Caspar said, standing up from the bed, “I’m glad we could talk, also we’re staying for the invasion, so I hope we all make it through this alive…”

“W-wait a minute!! You’re not going back to the empire? And we? Who’s we?”

“Me, Linhardt, Petra, Bernadetta, Dorothea, and Ferdinand,” he answered, “We discussed everything after that assembly, and we agreed that we should at least help fight off the invasion,”

“All of you? You all agreed to stay? Even Ferdinand?”

“Yeah, it was his idea! I don’t know if it’s because he lost everything thanks to Edelgard or if he’s just having a change of heart, but he rallied us to fight for what we believe is right and we all decided to stay here!”

“I… thank you very much for your support,” Ashe said, “I will never forget this…”

“Yeah, it was no problem,” Caspar answered, walking towards the door, “Oh, um… before I leave, there’s one other thing Ferdinand mentioned that got us a little worried…”

“What’s that?”

“If Edelgard won’t be our leader, then we’ll have to find someone else to lead through the war, the problem is, our first choice seems a little…”

* * *

Unhinged.

That’s the word Ashe would use to describe the current state of Dimitri right now. After the conflict at the holy tomb, Dimitri became different. He spends time mostly at the cathedral now, staring at the altar and statues of the saints, missing most of his classes in pursuit of his thoughts. He began mumbling the names of dead people, the ones who were close to him. Father, stepmother, Glenn, those are the words he would repeat over and over again followed with the resolve to have justice for all of them.

In short, saying that Dimitri had a change of personality would be an understatement, it would be more like…

“Crazy, he’s gone completely crazy!” Sylvain said in the middle of their lunch, “I kept trying to talk to him, but he just wouldn’t listen!”

“I’m sure he’s just having a hard time,” Annette said, “Maybe we should just give him some space and he’ll return to normal in no time!”

“Normal? This is his normal self,” Felix argued, “It’s damn well time you all learned the truth, that Dimitri you all knew so well wasn’t normal, it was the opposite of normal. But this… that bloodthirsty boar who gains pleasure from slaughtering his enemies mercilessly… that is the Dimitri I knew…”

“Are you saying that was all just an act? Was Dimitri always this… vicious?” Mercedes asked, “Oh my, now I’m really worried he’s going to use that sewing kit I gave him to kill people!”

“I don’t think you have to worry about that, um…” Ingrid said, “Regardless, Felix, Sylvain, and I knew his highness ever since we were little and all we could say is that he’s always been a kind, sweet, devoted soul since birth, and he never showed any signs of violent behavior…”

“Until now,” Felix said.

The table became silent as everyone thought about the current worrying state of their house leader. Ashe looked at Felix for a bit, thinking that perhaps he saw this coming for quite a while now. Everytime the group starts talking about Dimitri, he simply scoffed at everyone and warns them about his true nature. What exactly happened between the two of them? He doesn’t understand, but it all started during both Dimitri and Felix’s maiden battle around one year ago. After the young prince returned to the castle, Ashe congratulated him on his victorious battle, saying that it’s an important step before he truly enters the officer’s academy.

What happened next was very puzzling.

He wanted to know how Dimitri did in that maiden battle, so he tried to pull reports from everyone who was involved. Needless to say, he didn’t get much insight from it for some reason. The reports that came in were… a bit strange. Most of the captains and generals said that it was a tough battle, but it wasn’t impossible to win, and in the end, they managed to prevail. But at the end of the report, there was one final statement that intrigued him.

“The young prince took control of the battlefield very well, extremely well, in fact,” Ashe said, “But I have concerns regarding his style of leadership and fighting. What I saw in his highness was perhaps an unforgettable scene, I truly hope he won’t continue this behavior when he assumes the throne,”

Nearly every report he’s read so far has a version of that statement at the end. Ashe doesn’t understand, what did they see in Dimitri that made them wrote such a thing? Was it a real concern about his fighting and leadership style during that maiden battle? He tried pulling reports from various soldiers who participated in it as well, only a few of them wrote the same concern.

And then he stumbled upon Felix’s report.

Felix was very blunt with his feelings and he spared no time in writing that report from his perspective. To say that Dimitri’s action was worrying is at best considered sugarcoating, no, scratch that, this is like almost like dumping three barrels of sugar onto a corpse and telling people everything’s fine. What happened on the battlefield, according to Felix, was extremely terrible. Ashe read every word, every sentence, trying to understand every gruesome detail that Felix managed to write on his limited 3-page-report. This has to be very hard to write, he thought, and it has to be hard on Felix as well, seeing someone he knew for so long doing these kinds of things…

The next time Ashe met with Dimitri, he didn’t say a word about it, hoping that it would all just go away. That was his first battle, after all, and he’s been through so much ever since Duscur happened, so maybe it’s just the young boy unleashing his emotions, and he just got a little carried away. And that thought proved to be true when they had their first fight at the officer’s academy. Ashe saw what he could do at firsthand notice, and so far, everything seems to be normal…

But that was just a momentary thought, it was temporary. When the conflict at the Holy Tomb happened, he finally realized that Felix wasn’t lying about his report, everything he wrote was true.

* * *

“You, why are you staring at me like that?” Felix asked.

“Oh, uh… nothing, Felix!” Ashe answered, “I was just, um… I was just thinking about something…”

“Say, Ashe, you’ve been awfully quiet about all this,” Mercedes said, “Do you have any thoughts on Dimitri?”

“No, not really,” he said, “I’m just as shocked as you all are, never in a million years I thought his highness would do something like this, becoming this kind of person…”

“Heh, now all you know what I went through…” Felix said.

“Hey, come on now, Felix,” Sylvain said, “Who knows, maybe he’s just going through a phase, maybe he’ll come back to his senses anytime now…”

“I’ve told you the stories, the things I saw him do at our maiden battle, he’s always been like this, and he won’t go back because he doesn’t have anything to go back to!”

“You know, I never heard the story about your maiden battle with his highness,” Annette said, “What did you see that made you hate him anyway?”

“Was it the part where he put someone’s head on a pike? Or the time he slit a dying enemy soldier’s throat and watched him bleed to death?” Ashe asked.

Everyone at the table quickly turned their attention at Ashe. Mercedes covered up her mouth out of disgust, while Annette looked extremely scared. It was then Ashe realized that he accidentally slipped up and revealed a detail that he probably shouldn’t have known in the first place.

“Wait… how did you even know that?” Felix asked, “Did he told you about it? Does he enjoy telling stories about his heartless acts on the battlefield??”

“No, of course not!” Ashe said, “I was just, um…”

“I don’t remember that story, but maybe you told it to us, Felix,” Annette said, “I mean, you told us a bunch of reasons why you don’t like his highness so much,”

“That’s impossible! I never told that story to all of you!” Felix said, “Only four people should’ve known about that story! Me, the boar, Sylvain, and… the captain at the maiden battle who read my reports on the boar’s behavior…”

Ashe became nervous, there’s no way he could tell any of them that he read Felix’s report. Telling them that would bring up an even bigger follow-up question: how did he have the report in the first place. He tries to find his way out from the conversation, but Felix doesn’t let him leave. At this point, everyone at the table became curious as well. He took a deep breath, thinking should he just tell all of them about it? They are his closest friends, after all, but are they worthy of keeping the secret?

That was when something else happened. Out of nowhere, the church bell suddenly rings out of its usual schedule, meaning something had gone wrong.

“ALL DEFENSELESS STUDENTS SHELTER THEMSELVES AT ONCE!!” a member of the knights shouted, “THE EMPIRE HAS INVADED THE MONASTERY!!”

“T-the empire? They’re here? Now??” Annette asked, “But this is way too early!!”

“Maybe they got ready way sooner and marched right down here,” Sylvain said, standing up from his seat, “Regardless, I’m not going to let anyone die today, I need to head to my room and grab my lance,”

“I’ll pick up my sword too,” Felix said, “Beats waiting to be killed anyway…”

“Annie, should we head to the shelter?” Mercedes asked, “Maybe we should wait for everyone down there,”

“There’s no way I’m going to hide while everyone else is fighting for us!” Annette said, “Come on, Mercie! Let’s help out and fight! Ashe, what about you?”

“Who, me? Of course, I’m going to fight too!” Ashe answered.

“Great! We need all the help we can get!” she said, “Let’s grab our weapons and meet up at the front gate! We’ll protect this church if it’s the last thing we do!”

* * *

On a rainy night, eight months after the church invasion, the thought of that day suddenly came to mind. He was lucky that he managed to avoid answering the bigger question thanks to that sudden drill alert, and when everything was over, none of his friends asked him about it again. To this day, Felix remained suspicious of him, but as long as he doesn’t give in to that, he has nothing to worry about…

Ashe stared at the window of his carriage, although the war has taken its toll on Faerghus, the Duran territory remains strong and wealthy. So far, the empire hasn’t tried to touch it yet, and as Lord Duran, he asked his people to share their wealth to the less fortunate parts of Faerghus that wish to defend themselves from the empire. Currently, he’s on his way back to Fort Duran after returning from a trade meetup with other territories of the kingdom.

The carriage stopped in front of the fort’s gate and Ashe quickly pays the man a generous bag of gold, more than he should’ve paid as a form of kindness to the man. The gatekeepers quickly let him inside the fortress to shelter him from the pouring rain. Once inside, the head butler greeted him back and gave him a towel to dry off. Ashe heads to the dining room, wanting to get something to eat, and instructing his head butler to prepare one of the room since Caspar will be visiting early next week. Along the way, the servant kept trying to tell him about something, and when Ashe finally decided to listen, it was too late.

“Figured I would find you here…”

Sitting inside his dining room was none other than Felix Hugo Fradalrius. This was what his head butler has been trying to tell him about all this time. Ashe sighed and dismissed the young man, saying he’ll take care of things from here. He sat down at the dinner table, trying to start a conversation with his old classmate.

“Hello Felix, would you like a drink?” Ashe asked.

“No thanks, I’ve waited long enough, and I’m not staying any longer,” Felix said, “I’m just here to relay a message from Gilbert and then I’ll be on my way,”

“I don’t think you should leave right away, don’t you want to hear an explanation about this?”

“I’m not interested,” he answered, “I won’t bother you in exchange that you won’t bother me, are we agreed?”

Ashe nodded in agreement. Felix crossed his arms and began speaking about Gilbert’s message. While it was true that his highness was executed by Lady Cornelia a month after the battle of Garreg Mach, he now has reason to believe that the facts they knew weren’t exactly accurate.

“In short, he thinks the boar is alive, somewhere…” Felix said.

“W-what? His highness is alive?” Ashe asked, “How did you know that?”

“There’s been plenty of reports about imperial soldiers being brutally murdered across the kingdom territory,” he answered, “Their heads were put on a pike, some of them died from slit throats, this looks like the work of…”

“Dimitri…” Ashe said, “So, there’s a chance he might be alive after all…”

“Yeah, and he’s out there murdering people, what a joke…” Felix said, standing up from his seat, “Well, that’s all I have to say, Gilbert is trying to find him now…”

“Anything I could do to help?”

“I don’t know, find him for all I care…” he said, “Do what you want to do, I don’t give a shit, good night, Lord Duran…”

“Good night, Felix…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so, for this chapter, I thought I focus a little on Dimitri's feral state and how it affects his mentor relationship with Ashe overall, I originally wanted to make this a two-part, one pre-timeskip, the other post timeskip, but it ended up way too long and turned into a three-part chapter instead. It will cover everything from Ashe's perspective until the battle at Gronder.
> 
> And yes, Felix knew who Ashe really is, but he doesn't know the full extent of it and he doesn't really care about it. Ashe has a plan to bring back Dimitri, but it would require time and a whole lot of love.
> 
> We'll be in post-timeskip territory next week, be prepared!
> 
> Thanks for reading! Stay safe everyone!  
> Kudos, comments, and bookmarks are always appreciated!


	8. The Reunion at Dawn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was supposed to update last Tuesday, but I forgot and held it off for a few days, AO3 was a bit slow & glitchy yesterday, maybe because of the sudden influx?  
> I hope everyone is okay today, I'll see you later down below  
> For now, please enjoy this newest chapter

It’s been five years since the attack on Garreg Mach and the subsequent disappearance of their professor and Dimitri, who they assumed to be dead. Since Felix came to his fort that night, he began searching for the prince’s whereabouts. He sent plenty of scouts and spies out into enemy territory in order to find information. It was pretty easy to find clues about his whereabouts since everywhere Dimitri went, there’s always a trail of gruesome crime scenes. But everytime they tried to follow the clues, it leads them to nowhere. Up until now, Dimitri’s location and status still remain a mystery.

“Hey, what’s with the sad face? Come on, cheer up! We’re going to meet up with the others, remember?”

Ashe turned his attention from the carriage window to two of his friends, Caspar and Linhardt. The past five years have been pretty wild for the two of them. Ever since the war started, Caspar cuts ties with his family by sending them a letter filled with plenty of tough and condemning words. He didn’t even meet up with them to explain his reasons and say a proper farewell, not even once in the five years that have gone by.

Meanwhile, Linhardt was a bit slower in terms of action. After graduating from the academy, he returned to his territory, indulging in laziness and avoiding the war altogether. It was miraculous that he managed to keep it up for nearly five years before his father reprimanded him and asked him to join the empress’ troops. In response to that, he gathered all of his energy that he’s been saving for the past five years, and ran away from his home. He heads to the nearest territory he could think of, one where he could hide.

And it just so happens that the first place he came through was the Duran territory.

Linhardt has been staying at Fort Duran for around four months now, still indulging in laziness, sleeping in his room most of the time, and then trying to sneak into the east wing plenty of times. Ashe doesn’t mind about him since he’s usually away during the day, but the servants sure have a lot of complaints about him…

Their carriage halts in the middle of the ruined village and the three of them got off from it. Ashe pays the man a handsome fee for taking them all this way and told him to be careful. He looked around at the village, remembering the time when it used to be such a bustling place, but nowadays, it became completely abandoned thanks to the war. He looked up at the monastery building in front of him, just a few minutes of walking now, he said to everyone.

“Why do we have to stop here?” Linhardt complained, “Why couldn’t we just go all the way to the monastery?”

“It would be too dangerous,” Ashe answered, “I’ve received numerous reports that the monastery has become a haven for thieves trying to steal anything they could find inside, so we should be on the lookout,”

“Great, five years and we’re heading straight into battle already…”

* * *

As they made their way through to the monastery building, Ashe suddenly heard a sound, footsteps coming towards where they are. The three of them quickly hide at a nearby ruined house, hoping to catch whoever it is coming towards them. The footsteps suddenly stopped for a moment and Ashe thought the person has already left. But all of a sudden, the person suddenly appeared in front of Ashe’s face.

“What are the three of you be doing here?”

“GWAAAAH!!” Caspar shouted out of surprise. Turns out it was just Petra who also came to the promised reunion.

“Oh, Petra, it was just you,” Linhardt said, “Sorry, we thought you were a thief or something…”

“A thief?” Petra asked, “I admit, I have stolen in the past, does that consider me worthy of the title of a thief?”

“No, we don’t mean that,” Ashe said, “There are thieves, real dangerous thieves, plundering the monastery, stealing holy relics among other things…”

“Those must be the men I witnessed just minutes back,” Petra said, “They came with carriages into the monastery building,”

“Wait, so there’s really thieves inside??” Caspar asked, “We need to stop them!!”

“No, we don’t know how many there are inside! This could be dangerous!” Ashe said, “You three should stay right here and keep an eye out, I’ll go inside and try to see what’s going on down there…”

“Well, if we don’t have to fight, then fine by me,” Linhardt said, “I’ll just stay right here, then…”

“Ugh… fine… I’ll stay here too,” Caspar answered, “But come back here if there’s any fighting inside! I don’t wanna miss anything!”

“I will stand in place as well,” Petra said, “I wish you luck, Ashe, please do not be deceased,”

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry,” Ashe smiled, “Oh, maybe you guys could do one thing for me? Go to the house across the street and check the broom closet, please, I think there’s something there…”

Ashe quickly ran towards the monastery, keeping a safe distance and hiding wherever he could in order to not get caught. Meanwhile, Linhardt, Petra, and Caspar stayed outside, but they were a little bit confused by Ashe’s request.

“Broom closet?” Caspar asked.

“I do not understand, but it is not harmful if we take a look, I believe,” Petra said.

* * *

Once inside, Ashe hides behind the walls, looking at what’s happening within the monastery’s courtyard. Thieves, in large numbers, carrying holy relics to their carriages, trying to salvage anything that they deemed as valuable. Overseeing the process is a man he knew as Pallardo, a seedy merchant known in the black market. Apparently, he once made a stop at Fort Duran a couple of years back, offering to sell Lord Duran a precious relic that was once held by Saint Cethleann. Ashe knew way better than this and quickly rejected the offer once he realized that his story about Cethleann doesn’t make any sense at all.

“So this is where he got all those holy relics from…” Ashe whispered, “This is bad, I need to stop them before they get away…”

But before Ashe could make a move, someone suddenly silenced him by covering his mouth and took him aside. It was Gilbert, who told him to be quiet if he doesn’t want the thieves to notice. The older man was noticeably upset about Ashe’s rash decision to attack from the front alone.

“Are you crazy? You could’ve gotten killed if you went there alone,” Gilbert said.

“Well, actually, I won’t,” Ashe said, “It’s… it’s a long story, but Gilbert, what are you doing here?”

“Following the trails of dead imperial soldiers,” he answered, “You might’ve known this already, but I believe his highness is still alive, and I’ve been looking everywhere for him, the latest trails I’ve found led me here, to the monastery,”

As someone with extremely strong senses, Ashe also has the power to sense people with crests if they’re nearby. He ignored this sense if there are many people around, but when Gilbert said that there’s a possibility Dimitri could be somewhere inside, he decided to pay closer attention to that sense and figure out whether there’s anyone else they knew inside this building.

He could sense the crest of Saint Cethleann, that’s from Linhardt outside, and that crest he felt earlier, sure. He searched for someone else within the vicinity and then he suddenly felt it, the crest of Blaiddyd, it’s somewhere nearby! But there’s also another person with crest somewhere within this building, it’s…

No.

“Ashe, Ashe? Are you alright?” Gilbert asked.

Ashe felt pain gripping his chest, this sudden fear, this trembling… this feeling that his life is at stake. The last time they heard from them was five years ago when the monastery fell, ever since then, they just disappeared into nowhere. But there’s no mistaking who this crest belongs to, the professor is also here, somewhere inside this building. Ashe took a deep breath, feeling exhilarated from feeling something like this once more after five years, he smiled and assured Gilbert that he was alright.

Suddenly, they could hear footsteps coming. Ashe took a peek to see who it was coming to the courtyard. It was the professor and Dimitri, both still alive and well, in fact, except for the fact that Dimitri is wearing an eyepatch now, a story he definitely has to know at some point.

“It smells of blood and sewage,” Dimitri said, “Seems I’ve found their nest…”

“What the?” Pallardo said, seeing Dimitri and the professor walking to the courtyard, “Intruders! Protect the goods!”

“Shall we go rat hunting? Don’t let a single vermin escape!”

Ashe was saddened to hear Dimitri’s language, it seems that his state of mind had gotten worse in the past five years rather than returning to normal. Poor young man, framed for a crime he didn’t do, and then escaping on his own, living in the wilderness with only hatred and the thought of revenge inside of him. He looked at Pallardo’s cronies, there’s way too many of them, not enough for the professor and Dimitri to handle, it seems. Quickly, he told Gilbert what he saw in the courtyard and they both springs into action.

But even with the four of them, the battle proved to be difficult. Ashe could unleash the full extent of his powers, but he felt that would draw suspicion from the professor and Gilbert. He decided to save it and only use it when they’re in a pinch. As he was shooting his arrows onto the incoming attacks, he suddenly sensed more people with crests coming towards them at a fast rate. Could it be?

“Oh! I haven't seen any of you in such a long time! I'm so glad to see you're alive,”

The wielder of the crest of Lamine arrived, just as cheerful as ever.

“We'll help out from here! It's over, thieves!”

The wielder of the crest of Dominic arrived with a large smile on her face, ready to fight her way out and probably hoping if she could get some cake later.

The six of them began fighting together, but reinforcements aren’t over yet. Ashe could still sense more people with crests coming their way, and they should arrive right about…

“The monastery has become a nest of thieves!”

The wielder of the crest of Gautier arrived riding a stallion, and yeah, no shit, Sylvain.

“Professor! You're alive after all! But first things first, let's defeat these thieves!”

The wielder of the crest of Daphnel arrived on her winged horse, feeling glad to see her teacher still standing after all these years.

And finally…

”I'll lend a hand. We'll catch up later,”

The wielder of the crest of Fraldarius arrived with a sword on his hand, ready to cut through everything that stands in his way.

“Listen, everyone, we must end this quickly!” Dimitri said. Those words alone from their long-lost prince made them more energetic than ever, and they were ready to fight together again after such a long time.

* * *

It took a while for all of them to finally be able to finish off the thieves. Some of them escaped, but in the end, Dimitri managed to get ahold of Pallardo and ends his activity once and for all, a sight that Ashe has regretted to see. He could’ve arrested the man right on the spot, but in the end, he chose to use his lance and ended the other person’s life. He sighed as he walked back to the monastery entrance to fetch his friends. Now isn’t the time to dwell on something like that, now that they’re all finally reunited after five years, they should think ahead of what their next move should be.

At the entrance to the monastery, Caspar, Linhardt, and Petra were still standing there, keeping an eye out on things from the outside. Next to them was no more than three knocked-out thieves being tied with a rope by Petra. Linhardt said that they saw them fled the monastery carrying a sack of precious items, so naturally, Caspar decided to pick a fight with them and thankfully, they emerged victorious at the end. Linhardt was just glad that it didn’t turn into a big bloodbath, and they managed to subdue the thieves without actually killing them.

“Good job, everyone!” Ashe said, “The thieves inside have been taken care of as well, we should all head in, the rest of the class are waiting!”

“Yeah, let’s head in… wait!” Caspar said, “Uh… where did she go?”

“Hmm… she is pretty quick, must’ve run off when we fought those thieves earlier,” Linhardt said, “She could be anywhere by now…”

“It is possible that she have ran at a far distance…” Petra said, “We were distracted and did not catch sight, I am afraid,”

“No she didn’t run far from here,” Ashe chuckled, “Come on…”

They head to the ruined house that Ashe told them to check earlier. He opened the broom closet again to find the person they’ve been looking for: Bernadetta von Varley, trying to hide just like she always does.

“Gyaaaaah! Please don’t hurt me! I don’t wanna die!! Please!!” she squealed, “Ooh… why did I choose to leave the house and go outside? Stupid Bernie!”

“Bernadetta, it’s alright,” Ashe said, “You don’t have to be afraid anymore, the thieves are all gone, don’t worry,”

“I don’t think she was afraid of the thieves…” Linhardt said.

“Hey, Bernadetta, you wanna go in for the reunion or what?” Caspar said, “Come on, everyone’s waiting for us inside!”

“R-reunion? Y-you mean there’s actually other people inside?” she asked, “Oh no… I thought everyone would just forget because of the war and I was going to be the only one here! I just wanna go back inside my room and spend the rest of eternity there… but I can’t do that if there are too many people inside!! Oh… what should I do??”

“It would seem the Bernie does not have the power to make full use of her legs,” Petra said, “What should we proceed?”

“I got this, hang on,” Caspar said.

“Gyaaaaah!! W-what are you doing?? Not again! P-put me down!!” Bernadetta said, being carried by Caspar.

“Okay, now we can go inside!”

* * *

The reunion started pretty cheerful, everyone was just glad seeing both the professor and Dimitri again after all these years they were gone missing. Gilbert had to explain to the professor what had happened in the past five years since apparently, they had slept ever since that battle at Garreg Mach? Ashe was intrigued by this, by nature, vampires can sleep for as long as they want, for days, months, years, or even centuries, but for a normal human to sleep for five years and not aging one bit? That piqued his interest a bit, does it have something to do with his strange crest?

The rest of the students arrived just moments later, Ferdinand, Dorothea, Ignatz, Marianne, and Lysithea. Everyone was glad to see each other after five long years, sure some of them occasionally meet up with each other at one point or another, but for all of them to be together again? This was a moment to be celebrated, but then, they realized that someone was missing…

“Dedue,” Dimitri said, “He’s dead. He died in my place,”

Of course, Dedue would do something like that, of course, he would be foolish enough to rescue his prince from the guillotine and take his place instead. Ashe lowered his head, remembering the kind person who always helped his gardening and cooking during his academy days. He would’ve been happy to see everyone reunited together again, but all they could do now is give a moment of silence to honor the life he led…

* * *

To say that everything went normal would be a terrible mistake, with the war still raging on outside, and Faerghus becoming a puppet state under the control of Lady Cornelia, things are far from normal. Ashe reflected on this fact as he sat inside the library, thank the goddess the thieves didn’t decide to plunder this place as they did with the rest of the monastery. Although it’s filled with extremely valuable knowledge, they didn’t touch this place, not one bit, maybe it’s because they rarely read books, so they don’t exactly understand its value and decided to skip it altogether.

Dimitri’s state of mind is a worrying subject as well. When they discussed their strategy a few days ago, all the prince wanted was to head straight to Enbarr and execute Edelgard right away. Although a few of them agreed that taking Enbarr and executing the emperor would end the war right away, they also thought that it was an impossible feat since they don’t have any allies or resources to do such thing. The professor and Gilbert are working tirelessly in convincing him to commit to other conquests first before facing the emperor, but so far, they’ve had no success.

All of them are afraid that Dimitri could just walk out from the monastery and head to Enbarr alone. Doing something like that would get him instantly killed, and so, they try to keep an eye on him. So far, he’s been silent, not caring about others, and spending most of his time at the cathedral, talking to himself and the “ghosts” of his deceased relatives that he’s been seeing.

“Why, good morning, Ashe,” Flayn greeted, sitting in front of him, “How are you today? I see you were thinking about something again…”

“Yeah, I kinda am,” Ashe said, “I’m leaving my territory for the first time in five years, of course, I’m worried. What if the dukedom suddenly decides to invade? My people are kind and wealthy, sure, but I hope they could really fight…”

“You do not have to worry, the knights are keeping a close eye on the Duran territory,” Flayn said, “Your people are well-guarded,”

“I hope so,” he said, “How have you been? The last time I saw you was two years ago when you and Seteth visited for dinner at Fort Duran,”

“Oh yes, that was such a delightful night! Oh, it brings back so many memories of all those years ago, all of us gathered at the ballroom, dancing and singing together while uncle Macuil played the piano!” she said, “As for your question, I am well, all of us are very well. You’ve changed your hairstyle, is that correct?”

“Well, yeah, I need to look at least a bit different so nobody could realize that I’m actually immortal,” he said, “You didn’t put in any effort, I see, even still wearing that old uniform…”

“I like the design in this uniform,” she defended herself, “Besides, I have been traveling with the knights to look for Lady Rhea, if I simply changed my looks overnight, it would be most suspicious!”

“They might’ve just thought you went through puberty or something,” Ashe said, “I mean it usually happens at what you look like right now…”

“That is a good excuse, but thankfully, nobody was curious about me, so everything’s fine!” she chuckled, “On the other hand, I believe that hairstyle doesn’t suit you at all!”

“Oh, Flayn, perfect timing!” Linhardt said, entering the library all of a sudden, “You don’t look like you’ve aged a single day! May I ask you the secret to your youthful look?”

“Um… I… I believe I have… something to do at… the kitchen with… Ashe, isn’t that right?”

“I think I could handle it all by myself, Flayn,” Ashe said, standing up from his seat, “Well, I should get going now, dinner won’t start itself, right? Bye, Flayn! I hope my terrible hair wasn’t a bother to you!”

“Ashe, Ashe!! Please come back here!!” Flayn begged, looking at the sleepy crest-enthusiast standing before him. She probably shouldn’t have said that criticism earlier, knowing that Ashe is often sensitive about his looks and his youthful appearance, but she never expected this to be the result of that.

“So, Flayn, tell me, do you perhaps have any connection with Saint Cethleann? Other than the crest you both possess, of course…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, sorry for the late update, but there's another thing...  
> I've been pretty busy with my job, P5R and ACNH lol, and lately, I've been having a bit of a writer's block  
> I'm going to take a short break, meaning there's not going to be any updates next week, sorry.  
> Currently, I'm working on chapter 11, and I think it's near completion, but I need to take next week off in order to keep up the story quality. Thank you for your understanding.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Kudos, comments, and bookmarks are always appreciated!  
> Stay healthy, everyone!


	9. The Monster (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry for disappearing all of a sudden (again)  
> I know I said two weeks tops, but a lot of things happened last month and I just didn't have the time to write or update  
> I hope this new chapter could make up for my absence, I have a couple of things planned for the next chapters, but I don't wanna spoil too much.

"KILL THEM ALL!! DON'T LEAVE ANY SINGLE ONE OF THEM ALIVE!!”

Everytime Ashe hears those words at the battlefield, he felt both grief and sadness, remembering that it was his fault for letting the future king, the one he was in charge of, getting to this point in the first place. After their reunion, the empire didn’t hesitate to start attacking their new enemy right away. Quickly, they sent their troops to invade the monastery. It was a tough battle since they were just reunited and was very low on resources, but they managed to end up victorious thanks to the guidance of the professor.

They managed to capture the leader of the troops that invaded Garreg Mach, Randolph von Bergliez, Caspar’s distant uncle. As they were recuperating, Ashe snuck into the courtyard to hear Dimitri’s conversation with the captured leader. He was horrified to learn that the prince was planning to torture him little by little. Slowly, he took out his bow and arrow and aimed for Randolph’s head, wanting to end the man’s life before Dimitri could get ahold of him, but thankfully, the professor managed to interfere first and quickly put an end to Randolph’s misery using his sword.

The next day, he meets up with Caspar who expressed regret from having to even fight his own uncle. He imagined that his father is probably in an uproar by now after hearing the reports from some of the soldiers who managed to make a run for it. Ashe didn’t tell him about Dimitri’s original torture plan, and why the professor had to slay his uncle’s life. He felt like hearing something like that would even sadden him, even worse, it could shake his confidence in Dimitri’s current leadership.

He went to the cathedral alone, Dimitri was there, staring at the ruins that used to be the grand altar. He wished he could speak to the young prince, but everytime he tries to speak to him, Dimitri seems to have only one answer for him.

“Go away,”

It became clear that the prince was too fixated with the idea of revenge on his mind, he didn’t have anything to say, nothing coherent at least. At this point, Ashe just wants to drag the prince away and try to talk with him. But with too many people around inside the cathedral, it would draw too much attention.

And so, he decided to try to talk to him at night instead.

Even at night, the young prince is still drowning in his thoughts inside the Cathedral. He quickly grabbed the prince by his long cape and dragged him away to a small shed nearby, tying him up to a chair. Dimitri was rabid, extremely angry and just wanted something to kill at this point. Ashe told him that he only wanted to talk for a bit, and then he could do anything he wants.

“I WILL KILL YOU! I WILL SLICE OFF YOUR HEAD AND HANG IT AS A TROPHY!!” Dimitri rambled.

“You know that’s not possible, your highness,” Ashe said, “Please, I just wanted to talk with you,”

“Talk? What is there to talk??” he asked, “I will kill Edelgard, I will have her head, and I will destroy everything she ever loved!!”

“Your highness, please calm down…”

“HOW COULD YOU BE CALM AT THIS MOMENT??” he shouted, “She took everything I loved! It is fair that I do the same to her and take her life as well!!”

“I know you hated her more than anything else, I once felt the same way as well,” Ashe answered, “But you need to understand, your vengeance can wait, your people are currently being ruled by a tyrant, they need you now more than ever!”

“I have no people,” he answered, “Their suffering? What about my suffering? I am the leader! I have to have my revenge before they could have theirs,”

It was at this point, Ashe felt like he finally had enough of the monster. He was right, there was no point in talking with Dimitri anymore because he’s already too far gone inside his own twisted desires. The Dimitri he once knew, the little boy that once cried on his arms after losing his family… he might as well be dead by now.

Feeling angry at the prince’s selfishness, he slapped him on the face. That managed to silence the prince for a moment, but Ashe hoped that it would return some sense to him.

“You… I can’t talk to you right now…” Ashe said, untying Dimitri, “You’re not my prince, you’re not anyone’s prince anymore, and you’re not worthy of the throne…”

Dimitri didn’t give any answer, instead, he just stared at Ashe. The young boy turned back on him and opened the shed door, wanting to just leave him alone.

“Ashe, wait,”

Ashe quickly turned to Dimitri, seeing him call out his name, does that slap managed to return him to his senses?

“I… I’m sorry for what I’ve said…” Dimitri said, “I know what I’m doing is wrong, but I don’t know how to turn back… I… I must kill her to make things right,”

“Your highness, please understand, that isn’t going to make things right!” Ashe said, “I know it seems appealing to just kill Edelgard right away, but fighting hatred with hatred will only make it worse,”

“Ashe, I… you think if I kill Edelgard at this point, I’m…”

“You can’t kill her with hatred inside your heart,” Ashe answered, “You can’t rule your people if the only thing inside you is this… hatred…”

“But it will all go away when I…”

“No, it won’t!” Ashe answered, “I… I knew someone from the past, someone who wanted revenge very much, she wasn’t as worse as you, but there was still hatred inside of her, I knew it…”

“What happened to her?”

“She got her revenge, I saw her on the battlefield, smiling as she stabbed the man who murdered her family to death,” he answered, “At first, I thought that it was all over, but as the years went by, I realized her hatred never truly went away, and she used that hatred foolishly, executing one after another who dared to defy her, and that was when I finally lost my trust in her,”

Dimitri stood in silent, was he wandering about his feelings towards Edelgard? Ashe wished that he could just change his mind about everything, about the war, about the way they would move forward in the future rather than resorting to full bloodshed.

“Your highness… Dimitri, please,” Ashe said, “Do not let your emotions get the better of you! There must be a way to end this without using your hatred,”

“I… Ashe, I…” Dimitri said.

“Y-your highness?”

“I… you are right,” he answered as tears started streaming down on his face, “W-what good of a prince am I if I let my people suffer? If I rule them with hatred, I… I would be no better than Edelgard!”

“Your highness!” Ashe smiled, seeing his prince finally returning to his senses once more, “You… Do you mean it? Would you let go of your hatred and lead us to a bright future?”

“I will,” Dimitri said, smiling at his advisor, “Let us forge a path forward not just for our people, but for the sake of Fodlan,”

“W-welcome back, your highness,” Ashe cried, “I missed you so much…”

“I missed everyone too, Ashe,” he said, “I’ve changed my mind, our first task right now is to take the kingdom back. Edelgard’s head can wait, but I would prefer if we don’t have to take it at all, maybe the two of us can… make this world a better place rather than fight with each other,”

“Yes… you’re right,” Ashe answered, “Come now, I’m sure everyone would be happy seeing you like this again…”

“Yes, let us meet with everyone, oh how I missed them! Eating Flayn’s cooking, practicing sword with Felix, learning how to sew with Mercedes…”

“You’ll have plenty of time to do that, your highness,” Ashe chuckled, “After we bring peace to Fodlan, of course,”

“Well, let’s make that come true, shall we?”

* * *

Ashe stared at the ceiling of his bedroom, thinking about his conversation with Dimitri. He doesn’t know if he could count it as a conversation since the prince barely said anything except for death threats and his selfish desires.

In the end, it was only a dream inside his head. He lays down on his bed, imagining what could’ve happened if Dimitri had actually gotten his senses back and became his old self again. Everything would be easier, of course, Dimitri could lead them into victory if he puts his mind with the professor’s to coordinate their attack strategy. He desperately wished that slap he gave him could talk some senses back into his mind, but in the end, it wasn’t enough, his hatred for Edelgard overpowered his sanity and kept him in his monster state for the time being.

After that slap, nothing else happened. Ashe told him that he wasn’t fit to lead and unties him from the chair. Dimitri was angry, but he didn’t do anything to him, instead, he walked away and returned to the cathedral. Ashe stood in place and began to cry, finally coming to terms that he has failed in trying to raise and educate the prince into a noble leader. He couldn’t lead Fodlan, not in this state, and he’s pretty sure everyone would agree with him. And so, he began to devise a plan inside his head, hopefully, one that he’ll never have to use…

* * *

They say that Ailell was created out of the goddess’ wrath, but Ashe knew that’s not exactly what happened.

Ailell was a haven to the Nabateans who wished to hide from the world, they live with humans and hide their identities to run from their responsibility to their creator. However, that all changed when Nemesis and his army suddenly descended upon Ailell and began slaughtering everyone, Nabateans or not, everyone received the same unfair death punishment for his mission to succeed. For months, Ailell became his base as the land was ravaged by his armies.

Seiros tries to put an end towards his brutal regime, but when cornered, Nemesis used one last weapon in his arsenal: a large pillar of light falling from the skies, wreaking havoc and destroying the land once and for all. He vanished afterward, believed to be dead, but later reappeared as he continues his practice of cutting down the Nabateans.

Ashe lays down a flower next to Lord Gwendal’s body, feeling sadness and grief, it shouldn’t have been like this. Lord Gwendal was a kind man who often helped him a few years ago when he decided to spy on House Rowe as a squire to see whether they’re worthy of receiving House Duran’s aid or not. But Ashe quickly gave up on that idea when House Rowe became part of the dukedom by choice, sensing the opportunity ahead. He never saw Lord Gwendal again until today, when he suddenly appeared and started attacking their group. Dimitri happily cuts him down, even as Sylvain and Mercedes tries to restraint him, but the prince was too far gone inside his head and he attacked without any hesitation.

In the end, Lord Gwendal thanked all of them for finally putting an end to his journey. It was clear that even though he attacked them out of his loyalty to House Rowe, his heart wants the kingdom to rise again and prevail against the empire. It didn’t have to be like this, they could’ve just incapacitated him and took him as a prisoner until the war was over, but Dimitri wasn’t a creature that can be reasoned with, he will destroy everything that stands in his way towards Edelgard.

After their conversation inside that shed, Dimitri started to act differently towards Ashe, not responding to him, ignoring and avoiding him completely even. When Annette pointed out that he could’ve gone a bit easier on Lord Gwendal, he began to lash out at her, saying that war is harsh and he will kill every single last one of his enemies. But when Ashe tries to butt in and points out the same thing to him, the prince became silent and quickly walks away from the conversation altogether.

Back at the monastery, Ashe sits down on a bench in the dormitories. He was reading a book on psychology, hoping it would give him some insight on how to help Dimitri return to his normal self. But the book proved to be useless since the scope of the information it contained was incredibly limited thanks to Rhea’s interference. Her rejection and hindrance to scientific progress were one of the things that Ashe very much hated.

Back during the wartime, both the Nabateans and Nemesis possesses plenty of technologically advanced weapons. Seeing just how much destruction it could create, as the Archbishop, Rhea banned most scientific advancement that was discovered by humans. Although humanity could’ve achieved more in the long run, they’re pretty much still where they’re at a thousand years ago thanks to her meddling.

He sighed, putting away the book that doesn’t give out much help. All of a sudden, Felix suddenly appeared and sat down beside him. This is unusual, Ashe thought, since Felix is known as a lone wolf, and he’s usually never seen with other people other than Sylvain, of course.

“So…” Felix said, “The boar’s been acting strange around you… did something happened?”

“Yes,” Ashe answered, “Last week, I dragged him out from the cathedral and tied him to a chair, and when he pissed me off, I slapped him hard…”

“That… that takes a lot of guts…” Felix said, visibly surprised by Ashe’s words, “The fact that he hasn’t killed you for doing that to him says something…”

“He could if he wanted to, but it would be pointless anyway since I can’t die…”

“What do you mean you can’t die?”

“You still don’t have the full picture of me, do you?” Ashe smiled.

“I know you’re a rich noble with a crest, and I know you don’t age, I got that from asking the old man about you…”

“Rodrigue… yes, of course, he knew about me…” he said, “We attended the academy together, after all, him, me, and King Lambert…”

“But you can’t die? I’m actually envious of you…”

“Envious? Felix, I’m grateful to still be here right now, but what you need to understand is that this ability feels like a curse to me… to have everyone I know grow old and just wither away while I’m still here for all of eternity… that’s not right!”

“You’re right, it isn’t,” Felix sighed, “Fine, I apologize for my statement… I’m not envious of you anymore…”

“It’s alright, I get that a lot, actually,” Ashe answered, “So, is that what you wanted to talk about?”

“No, there’s one more thing,” he said, “That slap you gave him… you have obviously been trying to figure out a way for him to actually think straight again… are you making any progress?”

“So far, not really…, but I have a theory, and I don’t know if it will work or not…”

“Which is?”

“His highness has lost most of the people he cared about, that’s a sad fact to acknowledge,” Ashe said, “I think if he’s surrounded by people that he’s grown close with, it might bring him back. It happened two times, with us and then with Lord Rodrigue, yet it didn’t do anything…”

“You know any other people that the boar cared?”

“I could only think of two, but if he doesn’t return to normal after seeing both of them, then I truly give up…”

“Where could we find them?”

“The second one is out of reach, but the first one might be a bit closer than we think,” Ashe said, “You see, my scouts reported something interesting to me just a few days ago…”

* * *

Taking over The Great Bridge of Myrddin wasn’t an easy task. Despite the alliance’s aid in distracting House Gloucester long enough so the kingdom and the church could invade, it appears that the empire doesn’t want to take any chances and guarded the bridge heavily. At the commander’s helm were Ladislava, one of Edelgard’s trusted general and the former leader of her army. To make matters worse, out of nowhere, Lorenz suddenly decided to come back with his troops and began attacking them as well.

However, they’re not the only ones with reinforcements.

In the midst of battle, one of the soldiers managed to make Dimitri fall into the ground. The prince couldn’t get up in time and was about to be struck down, when all of a sudden, someone impaled them with a lance from behind. When the soldier fell, Dimitri managed to look at the face of his savior.

“Your highness! Apologies for the late arrival,”

“Dedue??”

From all the way across, while shooting his arrows and accompanying Ferdinand who’s fending off imperial troops reinforcements, Ashe smiled as he saw both Dimitri and Dedue finally reunited. A couple of weeks ago, Ashe received some news from his scouts, saying that they managed to find the whereabouts of Duscur refugees that managed to hide when the war started. He wanted to send a message to them, hoping that they could become allies in retaking the continent, though he wouldn’t be surprised if they refused to do so. However, the one who they chose to reply to their message turns out to be none other than Dedue, the man he thought was dead for the past five years.

They began exchanging letters, with Ashe explaining Dimitri’s current state of mind and asking him for help. In the end, the people of Duscur decided to send a small army and Dedue as their representative. Their main goal is different from just retaking the continent, what they truly want is for the resurgence of Duscur and full acquittal of their people’s alleged crime. Ashe understood their demands, and he believes Dimitri would do the same as well, however, for that to happen, the prince needs to gain his sanity again.

“…you’re alive? How??” Dimitri asked.

“We can discuss it later,” Dedue answered, “For now, allow me to join your forces,”

And with that, the vassal finally returned to the prince’s side. They fought together side by side, defeating imperial army troops and even general Ladislava. When Lorenz saw just how dire the situation has become, he attempted to flee before Dimitri could even notice. But on his way out, he was met with three of his old friends: Ignatz, Marianne, and Lysithea.

They’ve been mostly absent from the battle for a good reason. Ashe instructed Rodrigue to put them on another spot just in case reinforcements from the imperial army suddenly came, but remembering who was in charge of the bridge, he wanted to make sure no unnecessary bloodshed was done. And so, he decided that if Lorenz decided to return, it would be up to the three of them to convince him to surrender.

As the battle started, they could see reinforcements from far ahead. So far, they’ve been doing a great job fending the reinforcement armies off, however, their true purpose suddenly came to light when Lorenz picked the escape route that the three of them were guarding.

“We will give you two choice,” Lysithea said, “Surrender and become our ally, or death,”

“Go ahead,” Lorenz said, “Kill me if you must! I am not afraid to die on the battlefield as a true noble would!”

“Kill you? Oh no, we’re not going to do that,” she smiled, “You’re free to go if you want,”

“However, we have something else in mind,” Ignatz said, turning his attention to something else.

And that’s when Lorenz realized what was truly happening. The three of them have spared enough high-ranking empire soldiers and tied them up with rope. The three soldiers witnessed in disbelief as they saw the leader of House Gloucester, Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, attempted to flee and desert his troops just like that.

He was being blackmailed.

“You see, if you decide to go back inside, Dimitri would surely want your head right now,” Lysithea said, “And if you just leave, these empire soldiers saw everything, they’re a witness to your lack of courage!”

“Lorenz, I’m sorry, but you need to come with us,” Marianne apologized, “We are planning to release these soldiers somewhere else, and I think you could be in big trouble if Edelgard ever heard what you did today…”

“Please, Lorenz, nobody else has to die today!” Ignatz said, “I know this is war, but we’re doing our best to keep the casualties to a minimum! Please just come with us, we’ll protect you from Edelgard, from Dimitri, please!”

Lorenz began to hesitate, is this how he wants to go down in history? If he returns there, he will die by Dimitri’s hand, and if he flees from here, Edelgard would surely have him killed. No matter what happened, he won’t be able to die from an honorable death, the soldiers that act as witnesses will tamper with his story, seeing that he has no option left. He lays down his lance and got off from his horse, finally tired of fighting this endless war. However, as he was about to surrender, Dimitri suddenly appeared behind him.

“There you are…” he said with a mad look on his face, “I’ve been looking for you, you backstabbing noble rat. What happened to that talk about trying to resist against the empire, huh? WHERE DID ALL THAT GO??”

“Dimitri, you do not understand,” Lorenz said, “I have been fighting against Edelgard for years, but my father… I have no choice when he decided to defe…”

“YOU HAVE A FUCKING CHOICE!!” Dimitri shouted, “We are not our parents! Most people here ran away from the empire even when they knew that they would be fighting against their homeland, against their family, but you… you knew it was wrong yet you chose to bow down out of comfort!”

Lorenz stood in silence as he hears Dimitri chastising him. Ashe watched from the top floor along with Ferdinand and Mercedes, wishing that this could be a sign of Dimitri finally returning to his old self again.

“And for that… for your betrayal of both the alliance and the church… YOU MUST PAY THE PRICE WITH YOUR DEATH!!”

Dimitri quickly lunged himself into Lorenz, preparing to kill the noble with his lance. Lorenz closed both of his eyes, hoping that his death would be quick and painless. However, he was surprised to find nothing has happened to him. Dimitri stopped in his tracks, being restrained by Dedue.

“Your highness, you should not waste your energy on something trivial like this,” Dedue said, “Our enemy has surrendered, there is no need for his death,”

“But he betrayed us! He’s one of Edelgard’s cronies!! He deserved death!!” Dimitri argued.

“Yes, however, the fact remains that he has chosen to surrender and join our side,” he answered, “Such a prisoner might be useful alive than dead. Now I will release you if you chose to continue and kill him, that is your option, I am just stating my personal opinion, your highness,”

Dedue lets Dimitri go after saying everything he has to say. The delusional prince stared at Lorenz for a moment, observing him like some kind of prey. He then looked down on his lance, seeing the blood of empire soldiers that he managed to cut down during the battle. He sighed as he finally made up his mind on what to do next. He gave his lance to Dedue and heads back to the bridge, giving orders to the soldiers waiting inside.

“Arrest him and bring him back to the monastery,” he commanded, “Put him inside his old room under house arrest, and squeeze every last bit of information about Edelgard out of him,”

Dimitri then turned his attention back to Lorenz, giving him an angry look. He chose to not murder him, but he sure looks like he’s going to at this point.

“Consider this a warning, you backstabbing filthy rat,” Dimitri said, “Your information better be useful, or I’ll have your head on the chopping block,”

Once Dimitri left, Lorenz was quickly handcuffed by the knights, and he was escorted to the caravan that was returning to the church right away. Inside his carriage was Ignatz, Lysithea, and Marianne, all three guarding and keeping him company for the rest of the journey. Lorenz was very much shocked as to what happened, and Marianne tried to make sure that he is alright.

“I am… alright, thank you for your concern,” Lorenz said, “However, I must ask you… what exactly happened to Dimitri?”

“Who knows,” Lysithea sighed, “Five years is a long time, anything could happen, but anyway, what’s up with your hair? It’s been bugging me the entire time!!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry for disappearing for a while, but with added pressure on my day job and considering the situation right now, there probably won't be any regular updates anymore. I think I only have one chapter left that's finished writing, but I might hold on to it for a bit until I finished the next one.
> 
> Also, some note on this one: there's not going to be any unnecessary deaths here, only storyline ones. Anyone who didn't join Byleth on this route won't die in battle, instead, I figure they're just going to be incapacitated and taken as prisoners until things calm down. Basically, this is casual mode for all of the characters, not just the ones that we get to play.
> 
> I do this because I love them all.
> 
> Thanks for reading!  
> Kudos, comments, and bookmarks are always appreciated!


	10. The Monster (Part 3)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final part of The Monster, or wild Boar Prince Dimitri saga  
> I hope you're all still well, please enjoy the newest chapter!

The next day, Ashe meet up with Felix and Dedue at the library, discussing what they should do now. It was clear that Dedue’s return managed to bring back some sanity into him, but it wasn’t enough. Dimitri still refused to attend war meetings and spends most of his time at the cathedral, mumbling about the deceased and ways he could kill Edelgard. At the end of this moon, to reach the Empire as per Dimitri’s direction, they will most likely be facing empire troops and Edelgard herself at Gronder field, what’s worse, the Alliance are predicted to make a move there as well. Although they have no current feud with the neutral-leaning alliance, they may have to fight them if they also started attacking.

“I have disappeared for five years, and now Felix knows about your secret?” Dedue asked.

“I already knew before you disappeared, so shut your traps, dog,” Felix said, “It’s clear that the boar is still full of nonsense, so what should we do next?”

“Well, I have only one hope left,” Ashe said, “Dimitri has another person he has yet to meet, but this isn’t going to be easy…”

“Why? Did he do something to this person?”

“No, not really, he hasn’t done anything to him…” he answered, “But this person… he’s likely going to do something that might make Dimitri even worse…”

“Then we should just abandon him, find someone else who could help the boar without all the risk,”

“It’s not as easy as that!” Ashe argued, “Like it or not, Dimitri will meet this person, and they would probably fight each other when they meet again…”

“Ashe… you’re not suggesting…” Dedue said.

“Yes, I am,” he said, “The last person that Dimitri cares about is Claude von Riegan, and they’re going to try to kill each other at the end of this moon at Gronder…”

“Well… shit,” Felix said.

* * *

As they reached Gronder, Dimitri became more unstable as he started to mumble and smile uncontrollably along the way. It was clear that everyone is worried about him and their respective fates. Some of them even began to lose hope in the former prince, asking themselves are they willing to risk their lives to put an insane man on the continent’s throne. Luckily, the professor was the one leading the battle, not Dimitri. Their leadership and control of the battlefield have been the subject of many praises, it was thanks to them that they managed to win their previous hard-won battles. Suffice to say, with a delusional prince at the helm, the professor is the one who managed to keep most of the troops’ faith in the kingdom and church alliance.

When they finally arrived at Gronder, Dimitri was the one to walk out first from the carriage, carrying Areadbhar with him. He was laughing in madness, calling out towards Edelgard and staring at the frightened imperial troops that have stationed in the far distance. Edelgard is here, he said over and over again. Ashe could only stare at him, regretting his failure in letting something like this happen. He should’ve known, he should’ve paid closer attention to Dimitri’s well-being in the years after the tragedy. But he didn’t do anything, having faced such tragedy himself, he thought that Dimitri would be fine in the long run, however, he forgot to calculate one thing.

Dimitri is human, he is not.

As the alliance soldiers arrived, the three troops finally came together, facing each other. Emperor Edelgard herself suddenly came out from the crowd of imperial troops carrying her own family’s relic, Aymr. As Dimitri was about to make a maddening speech on just how much he wished to kill her, she suddenly raised her arm and launched a barrage of fireball attacks into both the alliance and kingdom soldiers. Dimitri and the others quickly dodged the attack, however, it managed to injure many soldiers who did not see the attack coming. Out of the flame and smoke, both Dimitri and Claude walked out from it, wanting to face their fellow leaders on their own.

“Know that I will tear your heads from your shoulders,” Dimitri said, “The dead must have their tribute,”

“As big class reunions go...this one's gotta be the worst in history,” Claude laments.

“Years ago, we fought here as classmates,” Edelgard said, “But not today,”

The three troops quickly ready their battle stance, and all three leaders raised their arms, ordering their respective soldiers to march and fight.

“KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!!” Dimitri shouted.

It was either a rallying call or simply his own desires, but either way, it worked and managed to build up the spirits of those who are fighting on his side. Everyone began to march onto the battlefield, fighting both old friends and strangers. The numbers on all sides quickly dwindle as everyone began fighting, using the most powerful attacks that they know of. The professor, not hesitating in their attacks, brandished the infamous Sword of the Creator and began cutting down every enemy on their path. While Ashe stood by alongside Mercedes and Seteth as they moved forward onto the alliance’s path.

Dimitri and some of the others managed to take the center of the battlefield for themselves, putting Ignatz in charge of the ballista. While Dimitri directed him to aim towards Edelgard’s head, he chose to follow the professor’s direction instead and aimed against the enemy soldiers that the others are having difficulty with. One of those arrows managed to strike on Hubert’s left leg, forcing him to retreat in order to not risk his life.

* * *

As they began cutting down on the remaining imperial soldiers, the alliance starts to make its move, bringing in reinforcements. Hilda, who was absent in the beginning, suddenly appeared at the kingdom’s base and began attacking the kingdom soldiers. Marianne and Bernadetta, who kept guard at the base, was forced to attack her as she kept wreaking havoc on their base.

“Hilda, I… I’m sorry, please leave us alone, or we’ll be forced to attack you!” Marianne pleads.

“Y-yeah! Go away! Please go away or I’ll cry really loud!!” Bernadetta begs.

“Sorry, but this is what Claude wants,” Hilda said, “Even though I don’t really want to do this, but I can’t let him down, can I, tee hee!”

“T-then… I’m sorry, Hilda, but I’m forced to attack you now…” Marianne answered.

“Go ahead, think you can beat me?” Hilda said, showing off Freikugel on her shoulder, “Let me see you… try…”

Hilda paused her words as Marianne brought out a weapon of her own: Blutgang, her ancestral long lost hero’s relic that has been kept by her ancestor, Maurice, in their beastly form. They have recently managed to uncover it by defeating Maurice in the sealed forest, all thanks to the professor’s insistence on solving the mystery of her crest. Marianne has been practicing her skills for a while, taking lessons from Catherine in how to use a sword relic properly. She wields it like someone who’s very proficient with a sword, and as she aims it at Hilda, the pink-haired girl became both confused and scared.

Marianne began to attack her from the front, forcing Hilda to hold off her attacks using Freikugel. She begs her to stop, seeing just how much stronger she is now compared to their academy days. Hilda began having difficulty in keeping up with Marianne’s attack as she was moving at a fast pace.

“Slow down!!” Hilda said, “Where did you even get this thing?? You’re going to kill me if we keep fighting like this!”

“I don’t want to hurt you!!” Marianne said, “But this is war, and you forced my hand into it!”

They both kept on fighting with each other, dodging and blocking their opponent’s attack, hoping that they might gain the advantage at any second now. However, the two of them were equally strong with their own relics. At this rate, both of them are going to exhaust and break their relics. They were both forced to stop when Bernadetta fired a warning shot right in front of Hilda, causing a slight scratch to her nose.

“P-please… please stop!” Bernadetta begs, “Please, stop it you two!”

“Ouch, my nose!” Hilda said, seeing a small scratch at the tip of her nose, “Look what you did! Dammit… I can’t fight anymore! I have to get out of here! I’ll die if I don’t!”

Hilda quickly runs back to the alliance base, complaining about her slightly injured nose, but then before leaving, she turned back to the two of them and said a farewell.

“Your relic is really cool, Marianne!” she complimented, “Let’s have tea together when this is all over, okay? I’ll see you later, or not, hee hee!”

“T-that’s all it takes?” Bernadetta said, “A scratch on her nose?”

“Well, that’s Hilda for you,” Marianne smiled, “Come on, we should see if the others need our help…”

* * *

Although Dimitri’s command is to “kill every last one of them,” the troops mainly follow the professor’s order. They all agreed that there have been far too many bloodsheds in this war already, and so, instead of killing, they try to incapacitate and injure when they can. Most of the empire and alliance soldiers that were defeated by the kingdom and church soldiers were only knocked out instead of being outright killed. Ashe tried to divert Dimitri’s attention towards Claude on the other side of the battlefield, but the prince was too focused on the prize lying in front of him: Edelgard.

Along with the professor, Sylvain, and Annette, Dimitri went ahead and burst through Edelgard’s line of defense, wanting to have her all by himself. The emperor wasn’t fearful of the delusional prince, she held tightly onto her relic as Dimitri walked closer towards her. “Stay out of this, her head is mine,” the prince commanded, smiling and laughing crazily all the way through as the two monarchs finally faced each other.

“Stab your chest, break your neck, smash your head...,” Dimitri mumbled, “I will allow you to choose your own death!”

“I'm not interested in methods of dying. All that matters is when death takes place, not how,” Edelgard said, “And I have no intention of dying today,”

“I'm sure all of the people you've slaughtered so far thought the same!” Dimitri chuckled as he began to attack the emperor with all his strength.

* * *

Ashe could only watch from a far distance as the two monarchs finally battle each other face-to-face. His plan to reunite Dimitri with Claude has failed, the prince has seen all of the people he cared about, yet none of them managed to snap him back to reality. It was finally time to give up and face the reality that even if they win, Faerghus, no, the entirety of Fodlan will be ruled by a delusional king who can’t unite them. It would be no time before another war breaks out again. He has to do something, for the future of Fodlan.

However, his thoughts came to a halt when an arrow suddenly struck his chest. Ashe fell to the ground as he felt pain, blood starting to drip from his wounds as well. This arrow… it must’ve been shot with a heroes relic… something made out of Nabateans, the only thing in this world that could hurt him other than himself of course. Caspar, who was fighting nearby, quickly ran towards his friend when he saw him lying on the ground.

“ASHE!! ASHE!! Don’t die!! Please don’t die!!” Caspar said.

“C-Caspar, it’s fine…” Ashe said, “I’m… I’m not going to die… it just… this hurts real bad… gaaah!”

“W-what should I do?? Should I get help?”

“No, just… pull the arrow from my chest, and I’ll be fine,”

Caspar quickly grabs the arrow with his hand and pulls it out from Ashe’s chest. He could see the deep wound and the bloody mess the arrow managed to cause. Ashe yelled in pain as the arrow was pulled out from him. The injury was really deep, as Caspar noticed it managed to hit Ashe’s heart. If he was human, he would be dead in an instant after receiving that blow. After the arrow was pulled out, little by little, the wound started to close up on its own, his body is healing in an instant to Caspar’s amazement. When the wound finally closed, Ashe was able to stand up and thanked Caspar for his assistance.

“Are you alright?” Caspar asked.

“I’m fine, it’s just that… that one really hurts…” Ashe answered.

“How did that even happen? I thought normal weapons can’t hurt you!”

“Yeah, but that arrow wasn’t shot from a normal weapon,” he said, “It was shot from a relic…”

As they both were talking, Claude suddenly appeared out of the sky with his wyvern. In his hand, he holds Failnaught, house Riegan’s relic, and the source of Ashe’s pain. There’s no one else on the battlefield that’s holding a bow relic other than him, of course.

“Ashe! I’m really sorry I accidentally shot you!” Claude apologized, “I thought you were an imperial soldier or something,”

“Sorry? You almost killed him!” Caspar angrily said, “And that doesn’t make it any better!”

“Well, luckily he can’t die, so… everything’s cool?”

“Y-you knew about me?” Ashe asked.

“I suspected, but never really knew everything,” Claude answered, “There are plenty of stories about you back when I was a kid, I thought that you were pretty cool, and when I heard the rumors, I had to check it out for myself, and turns out I was right!”

“Well… that’s one more person, I guess… this is getting a lot more complicated…”

“So, why do you want to kill me so badly?”

“H-huh?”

“You keep turning Dimitri’s attention towards me… it’s clear that you want to kill me by sending something like that over to my side…”

“No, that’s not it,” Ashe said, “I was… I was hoping that if he sees you again after so long, he might… he might return to his old self again…”

“Wait, how would that help, exactly?” Claude asked, “Dimitri and I weren’t that close back then, we were just friends, you guys are much closer than him!”

“I… I can’t explain…” he answered, “But it’s just that… I thought you might help with his situation…”

The three of them watched Edelgard and Dimitri still fighting it out with each other. Everyone fighting on the battlefield suddenly paused their move and began watching as well.

“Well, better not let them have all the fun!” Claude said, “I should go, it’s been nice talking with you two!”

“Hey, wait, where are you going?” Caspar asked.

“Can’t make this one all about the eagle and the lion! The deer gotta be a part of history too!”

“Claude, I think it’s best if you and your remaining troops leave Gronder and let them both fight with each other…” Ashe said, “Those two… if I were you, I wouldn’t try to get in their way…”

“Aw, come on! I’m not gonna die!” Claude chuckled, “I’m going to make this into a three-way battle and stop them once and for all!”

“Khalid, haven’t you done enough?” he said, “Let those two have their feud and tend to your people?”

Claude’s expression suddenly changed, to Caspar’s surprise. His face is… looking extremely serious right now, that carefree personality that he wields with him? It just disappeared. Caspar was scared, to say the least, he never knew this side of Claude before, he looked like a completely different person. He never expected the alliance leader to wield another side of him like this…

“How did you know?” Claude asked, “Ah, I guess it doesn’t matter, you obviously knew my folks, I guess that’s where the stories came from…”

“They’re an old friend of mine…” Ashe answered, “I remember when you were just a baby, your father invited me to come, and I held you in my arms…”

“Well… that answers it then,” he answered, “Okay, I’ll go, but this won’t be the last time, I promise you that…”

“I never thought so either, so are you planning to go home?”

“No, not yet,” he smiled, “I can’t leave Fodlan to a warmongering emperor or a bloodthirsty prince. Until I can trust either one of them, I’m not going anywhere…”

“Me neither,” Ashe answered, “Looks like we have the same goal, you and I, we won’t rule this land, but we need to ensure its future…”

“I’ll leave his princeliness to you, then,” Claude said, “Until we meet again!”

Claude quickly leaves with his wyvern, instructing the alliance soldiers to retreat. One by one, alliance soldiers began to follow their leader and walked away from the battlefield, while the other sides kept on watching the fierce struggle between their two leaders.

“Whoa, Ashe… what did you do?” Caspar asked, “And who’s Khalid?”

“It’s… it’s kind of a long story,” Ashe said.

* * *

Both Dimitri and Edelgard kept on fighting with each other, even as their fight managed to last more than a few minutes. Both of them are tired, but they kept on going anyway. Dimitri’s desire for revenge kept his spirits up, while Edelgard’s desire for a brighter future made her able to continue even as her hand started to bleed from holding onto Aymr. But a few seconds later, the fight was finally decided. Dimitri moved a little bit quicker than the emperor and managed to hit her with Areadbhar. It didn’t injure her, not in the slightest, only tearing part of her dress, but it was enough to knock her into the ground to admit defeat.

“I lost?! Just as expected, you aren't making my path an easy one,” she sighed, “I must retreat for now. We'll meet again on the battlefield,”

Suddenly, Hubert, limping with his bandaged feet, appeared right next to Edelgard and warped her away with his magic. Dimitri was more than enraged, to have what he truly wants for the past five years right in front of him, and then seeing that chance disappear in a mere few seconds… it was unacceptable.

“So you think you can escape, Edelgard?” he said.

Rodrigue, riding on his horse came onto the battlefield to check on the prince and their troops. There are plenty of casualties, as expected, but he was relieved to see the prince alive and well even after facing the emperor himself. But… he wasn’t exactly well, to be honest…

“Your Highness! You're alive!” Rodrigue said, “We have to retreat to the Great Bridge of Myrddin...”

“That woman...we failed to capture her,” Dimitri lamented, “I'll keep pursuing. The rest of you, keep fighting!”

“I'm so sorry...but we can't do that,” he argued, “I understand how you feel, but the Imperial army is closing in!”

“I'll kill all of them! No matter how many hundreds or thousands of them there are!”

* * *

From a safe distance, both Caspar and Ashe made their way towards the prince, incapacitating any empire soldiers they met on the way. Most of them have disappeared, retreating to their outpost when Edelgard fell down. From where they’re standing right now, they could see an army marching down the mountains towards Gronder, holding the empire’s banner, meaning that the reinforcements will come through in just a short time. The others and everyone at the base have retreated to the bridge, but Dimitri is still standing at the empire’s base, probably regretting how he was unable to kill Edelgard. Rodrigue is there and so is the professor, they all should retreat immediately before anything bad could happen.

“How’s your chest?” Caspar asked, “Does it still hurt?”

“No, it’s fine,” Ashe answered, “Honestly, I’ve been through worse than this, all of my limbs have been cut off at one point or another, and one time, I got beheaded with Thunderbrand…”

“Catherine accidentally cut your head off?”

“No, it was her ancestor,” he answered, “We got into a dispute, and well… the duel didn’t end well. Everyone quickly ran away when they saw my head was still talking even as it was cut off from my body, it took me half a century to dispel any rumors about House Duran being cursed and everything…”

“Dude, how are you even alive right now?”

“I’m not exactly alive, Caspar, I’ve been dead for a long time,” Ashe said, “If something got cut off, I just reattach it until it heals itself…”

“Hey, um… I know this might not be the right time, but I have something on my mind…” Caspar said, “You remember that girl we picked up last moon when we took over the bridge?”

“Oh, yes, Dimitri allowed her to come with us,” he said, “She said she wanted revenge for her brother, he must’ve sympathized with her when he heard that…”

“Yeah, something seems off about her… I don’t know… I feel like she looks kinda familiar…”

“You’ve met her before? Where?”

“That’s the thing, I can’t remember where!” he said, “You know her name? Maybe it’ll jog my memory…”

“I think it was Fleche,”

“Aw come on! That’s a common name in the empire!” Caspar complained, “Every family has a Fleche somewhere! Even the Bergliez has someone named… oh no…”

“Caspar, what’s wrong?”

“I… I remembered her… that girl…” he said, “We need to get to her right now!”

“Why? Who is she?”

“My aunt! She’s my aunt!” Caspar frantically said, “She’s Randolph’s sister! She must’ve tagged along so that she could kill Dimitri!”

“She’s your aunt??” Ashe asked, “How could you even forget that??”

“The Bergliez is a huge family! Also, I don’t go to family gatherings anymore,” he answered, “I mean, I’m not gonna remember every person I ever met in my life! You get it, right?”

“Well, yeah, but I think I would remember someone as important as that!!”

“Ugh… we don’t have time to argue! We need to get to her before… uh-oh…” Caspar suddenly stopped his movements.

“Caspar?”

“We’re too late! She’s there!”

Caspar points out to where Dimitri and some of the others are standing, Fleche is there, holding a sword on her hand. She began laughing frantically before quickly charging towards Dimitri, who seems shocked, yet unfazed by the situation. Ashe was about to use his enhanced speed to reach the girl before anything bad could happen, but just as he was about to run, something else happened.

Rodrigue jumped in front of Dimitri and took the blow instead. The professor quickly acts and kills Fleche as an act of both retaliation and defense. The girl fell to the ground, covered in her own blood, begging her brother for help as her life comes to an end.

The two of them, Ashe and Caspar, quickly heads to where Dimitri is and witnessed the situation in front of them. Caspar kneeled to the ground and held Fleche on his arms as she lays dying, he wasn’t feeling sad at the situation, just regret at not even trying to go back to his family and convince them that all of this was unnecessary. He stood up and began praying the only prayer he knew in front of his aunt’s dead body. When he finished praying, he looked back at Ashe, who’s tending to Rodrigue. Out of nowhere, Felix and Sylvain suddenly appeared, having been informed of the situation, they both rushed to the battlefield again.

They watched as Dimitri began to cry, begging for Rodrigue to stay with him. Everyone knew it was too late for that, the blow he took was fatal, and there was only a little time to spare before the goddess would greet him. As he realized he was dying, Rodrigue began to smile, saying his last words for the delusional prince.

“Your life is your own. It belongs to no other, living or dead,” he said, “Live for what you believe in. Dimitri... my boy... you really do look just like His Majesty...”

Ashe watched Rodrigue lays dying on the prince’s arm. Felix was mortified of the scene, yet he didn’t go any closer, wanting to keep his distance from the two people he very much despised in the last decade or so. Rodrigue never officially knew about his secret, but nevertheless, he was a friend of his. The three of them, Ashe, Rodrigue, and Lambert, all those years ago back when they attended the officer’s academy… he remembered the fond moments they spent together, the bond they forged, and the promise they made for the three of them to never forget about each other.

The sky at Gronder began to go dark all of a sudden, the rain is going to pour at any minute now, that will perhaps keep the imperial soldiers where they’re at, giving them a little extra time.

“Lambert... my promise... I...”

Rain started to pour down on the land, replenishing the plants and clearing up the fire and blood that was caused by the battle. Tears started to pour down from Dimitri’s eyes as well, he cried loudly as he stared at Rodrigue’s dead body on his arms…

* * *

Two days later, after they buried Rodrigue and held a small service in his honor, a knock suddenly came in Ashe’s door. Who could that be, knocking at this late hour? Whoever it is, they must’ve known that he never sleeps at night due to his vampire nature. He opened the door to find…

“Hello, I… I’m sorry to bother you this late…”

It was Dimitri, standing right in front of his door. After Rodrigue’s death at Gronder, he disappeared for a bit, not coming to the cathedral anymore, instead of locking himself in his room. It was only this morning that he began to emerge, and Ashe noticed that he was… different.

“Your highness… do you want to talk? Would you like to come in?” Ashe asked.

“I… I would very much like that, yes…”

They both sat next to each other on Ashe’s bed. He was right, after all, Dimitri is different, he certainly doesn’t seem mentally unstable anymore, but he couldn’t say if he has finally returned to his previous state, no, it was more of a mix of both, a new personality, one might say. The prince took a deep breath and began speaking to his only trusted advisor.

“I… I apologize for any trouble I’ve made in the past…” he said, “I don’t know what happened to me… all of a sudden, that feeling of anger… the desire for revenge took over and made me lost my mind…”

“Are you feeling any better now?”

“Physically, not really, I’m still recuperating from my injuries, but mentally, yes,” he answered, “After we came back to the monastery, I tried to sneak out and head to Enbarr, but then… they came, the professor helped me see the light and in an instant, those feelings just disappeared…”

“The professor… they really are something else, huh?”

“I am grateful for their assistance, returning me to myself again, but I must apologize to you as well, what I said back then… I regret saying it… my vengeance isn’t a priority anymore, but the people are! Ashe, will you… forgive me?”

“When you put it like that, how can I not, your highness?” Ashe chuckled, “I guess I should apologize too while we’re at it, I’m sorry I dragged you down from the cathedral, tied you up on a chair and then slapped your face,”

“To be honest, that nearly brought me back…” Dimitri laughed, “I never saw that side of you before, and after that, I sort of became scared of you, that’s why I started avoiding you entirely…”

“Are you still scared of me now? You knew what I’m capable of, your highness…”

“Not anymore,” he said, “Being in that state for so long, I’ve forgotten who you really are and could only see the monstrous side of you, the monstrous side of everyone. But enough of that, I wanted to ask you for advice…”

“It’s good to be back on the job! What can I help you with, your highness?”

“It’s about two matters,” he said, “One… my desire for vengeance has disappeared, and… I don’t think we should prioritize capturing Enbarr anymore, perhaps we should do the opposite…”

“You mean…”

“Yes, it’s time to retake the kingdom,” Dimitri said, “I wanted to propose that we head to Fhirdiad and save our people! It’s time to end that witch’s reign over the people! What do you say?”

“I think that’s the correct move,” Ashe answered, “You have my full support, your highness!”

“Excellent, I shall ask everyone about it tomorrow morning,” he said, “On the second matter… you have been very busy while we were in Gronder, I see…”

“W-what are you talking about, your highness?”

“You kept trying to divert me to the alliance’s side while we were battling… I think you wanted me to see Claude again…”

“That’s true,” Ashe smiled, “I was hoping if you see the people you care about, you would return to your old self again. It didn’t happen with the professor, with us, or with Dedue, so Claude was my last hope, considering what happened five years ago…”

“I couldn’t blame you for trying, Ashe…” Dimitri said, “However, your attempts weren’t exactly futile…”

“Hm? What do you mean, your highness?

“Remember what you said to me all those years ago? After our battle at Gronder, seeing Claude again after so long, and my return to sanity, I finally realized something… Ashe, I’m ready,”

“Ready? Ready for what?”

“I’m ready to confess my feelings to Claude…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates, updates! I've been able to get back in the groove for the past couple of weeks, and I've finished two new chapters, hooray! I'm planning to upload chapter 11 next week, as for chapter 12, we'll just have to wait for a bit.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading this fic and leaving lots of love, whether in the form of comments, kudos, or bookmarks! When I started writing this, this is where I was planning to end things, with 10 chapters or so, but it looks like there's still some ways to go, not that I'm complaining. 
> 
> Writing this has been really fun as well! Although I struggle a bit with writer's block and the language barrier (English isn't my first language), I still want to keep going at it and tell you guys about this version of the story you all knew and love. So, thank you very much! I hope you'll keep supporting me in the future!
> 
> We'll start talking about love for the upcoming chapters, so get ready for that.
> 
> Thank you for reading  
> I hope you all stay well.


	11. The Sunrise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was supposed to upload this last week but I forgot about it  
> I was going to upload it on Monday, but then boom! FEH suddenly dropped beach characters and I just forgot about everything  
> Anyway, I have thoughts on beach Sylvain, but we can talk about it later

“So, Dimitri is in love with Claude…” Linhardt said, sipping his cup of tea, “That’s going to be problematic…”

Five days after Dimitri’s laid out his plans and his new resolve to retake the kingdom back, Ashe, Caspar, and Linhardt gathered together in the quiet afternoon to enjoy some tea. They’ve been working nonstop discussing their battle strategy and training alongside their friends. It’s only natural that they catch a break once in a while.

Caspar was pretty hard to convince, though, as he was pretty restless. He kept training and training until last night when he finally got super exhausted and fainted in the middle of the training ground. Ashe quickly took him back to his bedroom and told him to take a break for today. Even then, as they’re enjoying their time off together, Caspar’s still busy trying to map out his fighting strategy in his notebook. Oh well, as long as he doesn’t overexert his body…

“I thought of that when he confessed about it to me all those years ago,” Ashe said, “But the logistics can wait, we’re not enemies, so it might be easier than we think…”

“I don’t know what I do if that ever happens to me,” Caspar said, “Falling in love in the middle of fighting a war? That sounds super bothersome…”

“Same goes for me,” Linhardt said, “I bet you two must be thankful that it happened before we all got tangled up in this mess…”

Ashe quickly spilled out his tea and Caspar stopped doodling what was supposed to be his battle strategy. They looked at each other for a few seconds before turning their attention back to Linhardt. They tried to laugh it off, passing it off as some sort of joke, but the green-haired mage was very much serious about what he said.

“Oh, come on, there’s no need to pretend,” Linhardt said, “I already knew everything, so, you know…”

“Y-you knew??” Caspar asked, feeling embarrassed, “H-how long did you know??”

“The first day I came to stay at Fort Duran,” he answered, flipping the pages of his book, “I mean it was very obvious…”

“Obvious? What do you mean obvious? There wasn’t any sign of that!”

“No, you two were pretty sloppy, there were signs everywhere,” he said, “There’s way too much of your stuff around the fort, and if you come by the fort that often, you must have a permanent room in there, but there weren’t any, meaning you slept at another place, the master bedroom…”

“You mean you knew the entire time and didn’t even tell us about it??” Ashe asked angrily, “So all that hiding was for nothing??”

“Oh no, that wasn’t for nothing, that was good entertainment, actually,” he answered, “But that also gave it away, the fact that you two kept bickering like an old couple…”

“Okay, that’s it! You’re not welcome at the fort anymore!!” Ashe chastised him, “After everything’s over, take all of your stuff out and leave the Duran territory at once! You’re officially banished!”

“Eh, fine by me, I’m either going to die or run House Hevring anyway…” he said, “Besides, I already have everything I need from there anyway…”

“You mean you… gah! That’s one more good reason to banish you then...” Ashe sighed.

“Hey, come on, don’t get stressed out,” Caspar said, holding Ashe’s hand, “Just look at the bright side, this means we’re free, at least in front of him…”

Ashe tries to calm down, feeling the warmth on Caspar’s hand holding onto his practically cold dead hands and looking at the blue-haired boy’s smiling face in front of him. He smiled in return, slightly chuckling in front of him. This feeling… love, is it? Before Caspar, he hasn’t felt anything like it in a long time. The fact that they managed to fell for each other and realize their feelings at the same time… he wondered how that happened exactly…

* * *

It all began around two years ago while the long war for Fodlan’s future still can be considered as fresh. In the first year, many people don’t realize the threat they are in, that is until both sides started to take drastic measures to claim victory. Conscription began a few months before the second year of the war, and as the number of troops increases, so does the death toll caused by the brutality of war. As the Empire strengthens its hand, territories that previously belong to both the Alliance and Kingdom quickly got annexed. The noble who lead the territory were either disposed of or switched sides to the empire to secure their lives, although they became nothing more than a mere puppet of the Dukedom, taking their cues in leading the land. Harsh laws were enacted, taxes were increased, and even slavery was brought back to an extent. Seeing this, the people began to open their eyes, and they realized what terrible nightmare they were living in…

That was the case to the majority of Fodlan, however, there was one territory that both the empire and the dukedom doesn’t dare to touch, and that is the quiet Duran territory. Duran is inhabited by a majority of wealthy farmers, and plenty of them hates the idea of war. So, they decided to not support any side, remaining neutral just like the Alliance under the leadership of Claude.

To protect his territory, Ashe even spread rumors about the incredibly powerful military strength of the Duran territory, which is a false claim. Duran has guards and a militia, but they are nowhere near ready to protect the territory from Edelgard’s soldier. To counter their lack of strength, Ashe increased his intelligence network, pulling out information from left and right. He encountered plenty of vital information that could alter the course of the war, but as he is neutral, he burned the papers once he’s done reading it.

When there was information about a secret invasion plan of the Duran territory by the Empire, Ashe went to the territory border all by himself and disposed of all of the soldiers in a quick move, sending a message to stay away from Duran. That move seemed to have worked, as later reports show that both the Dukedom and the Empire decided that invading Duran “isn’t worth their time nor effort,” and that they should focus their attention somewhere else.

It took nearly a year, but the Duran territory is finally safe, at least for now.

Despite the ongoing war, the Duran territory is still open to all travelers and merchants who wished to enter. Of course, this would mean that there’s a good chance one or two imperial spies could sneak into the territory to confirm the rumors themselves, but after that display of power at the border, it would be considered foolish for anyone to just straight out attack and invade Duran.

Travelers from far and wide come to Duran, perhaps the only place in Faerghus that doesn’t show any sign of being affected by the war so far. And one of these travelers include…

“Name, and reason for visiting, please?” the village gatekeeper asked.

“Caspar von Bergliez!” the boy answered, “I’m here to visit a friend!”

Caspar walked towards Fort Duran, carrying his belongings on his back, passing through the village and the marketplace. How long has it been since he last came here? Around half a year, maybe?

Things have been going pretty crazy ever since the Battle for Garreg Mach. After that battle, while everyone of his former black eagle house members came to terms that they have to face their families and allegiance sooner or later, Caspar decided to choose the latter. Despite what happened, the academy still holds a small and quiet graduation ceremony before everyone could leave and choose their destiny. After the graduation was over, Caspar simply left, heading in the opposite direction of the empire, wanting to get away from his family as far away as possible.

However, he didn’t just disappear entirely, he sent letters to both Ashe and Linhardt, telling him about his journey in the northern region of Fodlan, a far enough place from the empire. He thought that he would just run away for the time being, until his family finds him and drags him back to the empire. But when it became apparent that they have entirely given up on the idea of him joining their side of the war, he decided to continue traveling.

Knowing that his family won’t pursue him, he decided to expand his horizons, traveling to places that are considered near the empire, but keeping a low profile while there. Ashe and Linhardt kept all of his letters, reading about his misadventures all around Fodlan. They were even surprised to hear that he had made it to Almyra at one point, staying there for a couple of months before finally returning to Fodlan.

While Caspar kept traveling and having adventures on his own, that doesn’t mean he never stops doing it. Once in a while, if he passed by southern Faerghus, he always makes time to visit the Duran territory. One month before the visit, Caspar always sends a letter to Ashe, telling him that he’ll be visiting soon enough.

The Duran territory is as busy as always, Caspar thought. Even with the war going on outside, this place doesn’t change, not even one bit. After passing through the village and the farmlands, he finally reached Fort Duran. The gatekeeper instantly recognized him and opened the gates for him. He knocks on the door and was greeted by the head butler. Ashe walked down the stairs and gave a hug to his old friend. They began talking inside the dining room while having lunch together. Caspar telling him everything about his recent travels, sparing no details whatsoever. He brought Ashe a little gift from his journey to the Alliance territory, some delicious rock candies, a specialty of the Goneril territory. Ashe thanked him for his gift.

“So, how long will you be staying here?” Ashe asked.

“I kinda want to take a short break before traveling again…” Caspar answered, “Probably around two weeks if that’s okay with you,”

“Of course it is, don’t be silly!” he smiled, “You’re welcome to stay here for as long as you like!”

“Thanks, buddy! I’ll go ahead and unpack my things right after this!” Caspar smiled, “Oh, um… Ashe, if you don’t mind, I’d like to talk to you about something…”

“Hm? Is there something wrong, Caspar?”

“N-no, nevermind!” he answered, “I just, um… I’ll go upstairs now! Thanks for the food! I’ll see you later, okay!”

“O-okay… I’ll see you later as well…”

Caspar seems to be in a bit of a rush, maybe he’s just tired from all of his journeys? That’s understandable, after all the stories he heard earlier, it would be impossible not to be exhausted after going through all of that. Well, it’s not exactly impossible, it’s just that you have to be undead to feel no exhaustion. Hearing the stories made Ashe felt nostalgic about his adventures as well, how he traveled to all corners of the world all those years ago. When this is all over, he should take up traveling again, maybe bringing a companion with him as well…

* * *

“Crap, what do I do, what do I do??”

Caspar sat on his bed, panicking about what his next move should be. He didn’t exactly think that he would have the courage to make it this far, so now, he’s scrambling about his not-so-well thought out plan. What plan, you ask? Well, there’s a bit of a story about that one…

You see, throughout his travels for the past three years, Caspar has experienced many things. Battles with bandits, bloodthirsty monsters that threatened to destroy an entire village, and even soldiers from both the dukedom and his former homeland, the empire. And throughout all of this, he felt both satisfaction and happiness, basking in the glory of his victory. Yes, even though there’s a war raging in this world, Caspar felt like his life is perfect.

Except it’s not.

Something is missing, he knows it, but he wasn’t able to admit it. That happiness, all those feelings of glory, somehow they felt empty. It was different from his days back at the academy, back when he fought together with his friends and classmates. It took him a while, but he finally realized it. All this time, he’s been traveling alone without anyone by his side. So that’s what went missing, the feeling of sharing the glory. As soon as he found out what the problem was, he immediately began to work, finding ways to solve it.

He joined a local mercenary company for a couple of weeks before he has to leave again. While fighting together with them was satisfactory, they don’t exactly provide the feeling he’s been looking for. He doesn’t feel the bond with any of them. And so, he left to another place, trying to fill that emptiness again…

A moon later, he’s in another village, this time at another region of Faerghus. He couldn’t exactly remember the territory’s name, but all he knows is that the place is a bit poverty-stricken. One night, he decided to rest up a bit and visit a local tavern, listening to the musical performances while drinking a bit. Heh, singing, and drinking, he wondered what Professor Manuella or Dorothea is up to right now…

As he was about to leave the tavern, he accidentally stumbled upon someone from his past. A young woman with braided blonde hairs, yes, it was one of his classmates from the academy. They were both surprised but smiled at each other.

“Well, fancy seeing you here…” Ingrid said.

“I could say the same to you, Ingrid,” Caspar chuckled, “So, what brings you here?”

“I’m here to relax a bit, after all, I live just down the road from here…”

Oh, that’s right, Galatea, that was the name of this territory!

“You were just about to leave, correct?” Ingrid asked.

“Well, yeah, but I could stay for an hour or two if you’d like some company…”

“I would like that,” Ingrid smiled, “Come on, I’ll treat you to a drink!”

* * *

They both sat at one of the tables in the corner of the tavern, drinking and laughing as they tell each other the things they’ve been up to for the past three years. Ingrid was particularly impressed with Caspar’s tales about his travels and adventures, though, the young man does tend to overblow things, but even if only a quarter of it is true, it’s still an impressive feat. One that she wished was her life…

“Caspar, I’m impressed,” Ingrid said, “To think you would throw away your nobility like that and just go wherever you wanted… I wish I could do that…”

“Then why not? Why don’t you just leave?”

“I wish I could, but I still have a responsibility to my family and people…” she answered, “I couldn’t leave my family just like that, my little brother is still underage, so he can’t take over the business, while my people, I need to help them…”

“I get it, but don’t think you’re missing out on much…” Caspar said, “You’re a much better person than I am, actually staying with your family and taking over the responsibilities, while I’m just a coward who ran away from his house…”

“No, I think what you did was noble as well…” Ingrid said, “You refused to participate in Edelgard’s wrong cause, even if it means you have to give up everything in your life… fighting for your ideals… that sounds like a very noble cause…”

“Heh, guess we got our problems and responsibilities too…”

“I guess we do… So, tell me, do you have any problems of your own? I’ll lend an ear…”

“Well, there is one thing…”

* * *

Ingrid listened as Caspar starts to explain about his current struggles, about finding that one particular feeling. She completely understood what he meant, traveling alone can be quite difficult after all. And his trait of picking up fights with everyone he met is quite bothersome in making bonds and connection as well. She smiled, saying that maybe it isn’t friendship, it could be something else…

“Wait, what else could it be if it isn’t that friendship stuff?” Caspar asked.

“Well, call me a skeptic, but it might be companionship…”

“Huh? Companionship?”

“I mean romance, Caspar, you might be looking for someone to love, not for a friend…”

“W-wait… no, you’re joking, right?” Caspar chuckled, “I mean, come on? Romance? I’ve never had feelings for anyone ever!”

“You might not realize it, but you do,” Ingrid said, “Alright, when was the last time you had this feeling? You said it was when you fought alongside our old class, correct?”

“Yeah, at least that’s what I remembered…”

“Who was alongside you? Who helped you fight?”

“It was…”

It was at that moment, Caspar realized something. This feeling that he’s been searching all this time… it was right in front of him all along. Throughout his days in the Blue Lions class, he fought alongside a lot of his classmates, but the one who helped him the most was…

“…Ashe,” Caspar said, “It was Ashe…”

“You know, come to think of it, he helped you a lot, didn’t he?” Ingrid smiled, “When you joined our class, I rarely saw you fight alongside someone else, not even Linhardt. You two were such great partners, and the professor knows that as well, that’s why they kept pairing you up with one another…”

It was Ashe, the answer was him all along. That’s right, that feeling… he fought alongside a lot of people, but he doesn’t feel the same about it. He could only feel it when he’s together with Ashe. And it’s not just fighting either, that time he helped him study for the finals exam, or that time they caught the “thief” who’s been stealing food from the kitchen. Even when they argued about their justice, he still felt happy about it.

“I think you have some things to think about right now…” Ingrid said, “I’ll leave you alone, okay?”

“Um… hey Ingrid, thanks for the help, I appreciate it…” Caspar said, “I think I know what to do now…”

“It was no problem at all,” she said, “I’m sorry I couldn’t be more of a help, I don’t know where Ashe is right now. Last I’ve heard, he’s working with house Rowe, but when they joined the dukedom, he just disappeared all of a sudden…”

“Don’t worry, I know where he is…”

* * *

And so, here he is now, inside one of the many guest rooms in Fort Duran. Once he managed to ascertain his true feelings, he quickly made the trip from Galatea to Duran. He has to pass a few dukedom territories to get there, but he doesn’t care about that, all that matters to him now is getting to Ashe and tell him how he feels.

At least that was the plan.

Once he finally got there, he has another realization, just how stupid and brash his plan was. What were you thinking for the past two weeks, Caspar?? That you could just tell Ashe how you really felt and then everything will turn out for the best? No, this is romance, it’s different from being in battles. Acting rash without any strategies yields the same result as doing it with a master plan: impossible to determine.

He doesn’t know how Ashe will feel if he tells him about it, will it ruin their friendship? Will Ashe accept his feelings and they could become a couple? He forgot to add one more thing to the equation: Ashe’s immortality. That’s right, what happens if they became a couple? Ashe will outlive him for a very, very long time, and also it is without a doubt that Ashe has plenty of experiences when it comes to love, while Caspar doesn’t have any to begin with…

Yeah, this is going south real fast…

* * *

Over the next few days, Caspar spends his time thinking about how to approach the situation more carefully. He also started avoiding Ashe, fearing that seeing him could throw his entire plan into disarray. He couldn’t avoid him during meal time, of course, but luckily, he’s able to divert his attention towards the food, rather than the person he’s currently in love with. Another advantage is that Ashe is mostly busy during the day, handling boring paperwork and businesses, so he mostly left Caspar alone to his own devices.

It’s been a week and a half since he arrived at Fort Duran, and his plan isn’t even near its completion yet. Although it hurts to stay away from Ashe, he felt like he has to do it for the sake of his feelings. He’s going to be leaving in just a few more days, so he needs to finish up that plan quickly…

And then, it was already time for him to leave.

Three days went by just like that and he still couldn’t figure out what to do next. At this rate, he might as well just leave quietly and never tell him what he truly feels inside his heart. Caspar sat at the garden bench, looking at the night skies hovering over the Duran territory. He couldn’t sleep tonight, so he decided to just wander around the garden, lamenting about his unresolved feelings. He sighed in defeat as he decided to return to his room for the night when all of a sudden…

“Caspar?”

Caspar turned around to see Ashe standing behind him. The first thing that was in his head was to just run away, however, this is his last day at Fort Duran, and he’s been avoiding Ashe all week. So, when he noticed Ashe’s presence, he decided not to move away.

“Ashe? What are you doing here?” Caspar asked, “I thought you were already asleep!”

“I never sleep, in case you forgot…” Ashe said, “Sorry, I heard a noise coming from the garden, never thought it was you…”

“Yeah, couldn’t sleep, thought I’d cool off here…”

“Oh, I’m sorry if I’m bothering you, I’ll go back inside, okay?”

“No, wait…” Caspar paused, “Actually, I need to talk to you about something, can you, um… sit right next to me?”

“Alright…” Ashe said as he moved to sit on the garden bench.

“Listen, um… you might not notice this, but I…, well, um… I’ve been avoiding you for the past two weeks…”

“Oh, I know about that,” Ashe said, “Don’t worry, I don’t mind,”

“W-wait, you knew about it? Why didn’t you say anything??”

“I’m kinda used to it,” he answered, “A lot of people avoided me for many reasons, Caspar, even those I once considered as my friends. I tried to win them back, but they ended up avoiding me even more, so I decided to just not care about it. It’s better if they avoided me rather than hating me out in the open…”

“Ashe… I’m not going to do that to you!! I’m your friend!! I’m not some heartless creature who just goes around and break people’s heart!” Caspar argued.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, Sylvain is much taller than you, after all…” Ashe chuckled, “Okay, so why did you avoid me?”

“It’s… I… I don’t know how to explain it…” he said, “But since I’m leaving in a few hours, I guess I should just… say it since I have the chance, so, here we go…”

* * *

Caspar began to explain his feelings, how he was searching for friendship within glory, but couldn’t manage to find one. How he wandered around in the Galatea territory until he encountered Ingrid who explained to him what he’s feeling right now.

“And then, I realized what I wanted…” Caspar said, “Ashe, I… I think I’m in love with you…”

Ashe was surprised at Caspar’s words. They’ve been friends for years and stayed as one even when Caspar knew about his secret. He never treated him any different way, even though he’s much older and in a much higher position that anyone could ever imagine. He never would’ve thought that Caspar would develop these kinds of feelings for him…

“There, I’ve said it!” Caspar said, “I-It’s okay if you don’t say anything, I’ll… we could forget this ever happened and move on with our lives!”

“Caspar, I… I’m surprised, I…” Ashe said, “I think… I don’t know, I never actually considered it before, but if it’s okay with you… I’ll be glad to return the feelings…”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought…” he sighed, “Okay, so let’s just forget about it and… WAIT, DID YOU JUST SAID YOU WANT TO RETURN MY FEELINGS???”

“Mm-hmm!” Ashe nodded with a smile, “Do I need to repeat that to you?”

“Ashe… y-you… Do you want to be my boyfriend? W-why?? You said you never had those kinds of feelings for me?”

“I didn’t, but I think I do now…” he answered, “I cared a lot about you as friends, maybe a bit too much even. Well, now I have a reason to do that, and if it’s not much different from where we are right now, why not take it to the next level?”

“Ashe… I… I’m just too happy right now…” Caspar smiled, “I’m sorry, I… I’m way too happy about your answer!!”

“I’m really happy too, Caspar,” Ashe said, “Though… I have to warn you, being in a relationship with me means a lot of things, and not all of them are pretty…”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“I know you aren’t a heartless creature, Caspar, but I am, well, at least I used to be,” he answered, “Honestly, I was in a really bad shape during my Sylvain phase, and since then, I’ve decided to swear off romance, at least the one-night stands. But now, well… looks like I have to learn about love again…”

“Huh… I never thought about it, guess we’ll just have to go along and improvise along the way!”

“Second, um… this might be a hard subject to discuss on the get-go, but… you know that I’m immortal, right?” Ashe laments, “You’re going to grow old and change, while I’m not, and… I don’t know how to deal with that…”

“I thought about it, but… eh, screw it!” Caspar said, “We’ll figure things out eventually, right? How about if we just enjoy this moment to ourselves and think about it tomorrow?”

“Yeah, sounds like a great plan,” Ashe sighed.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Caspar asked, watching the moon with his head leaning on Ashe’s shoulders.

“Sure, what do you want to know?”

“Would you mind if I… stay here a bit longer? I’m not ready to leave tomorrow now that the secret’s out…”

“You’re still asking me that? Of course, I don’t mind!” Ashe chuckled, “You can stay here for as long as you want, Caspar…”

“Thanks, hoamm…” Caspar yawned, finally feeling like he’s ready to rest, “I’m feeling sleepy…”

“Then sleep,” Ashe said, “Don’t worry, I’m right here, I won’t leave you…”

Caspar closed both of his eyes as he fell asleep in Ashe’s shoulders. The silver-haired boy stared up at the night skies, smiling at the moon and the stars that decorated the skies. Once he made sure that Caspar was fast asleep, he began saying a few words.

“I know you’re somewhere up there, master,” he said, “If you’re listening to this, I’d like to say thank you, and I wish for your guidance one more time. I know it’s sudden, but I feel like this is it… no, I know this is it, this is what I’ve been looking for my entire existence…”

He turned his attention towards Caspar for a moment, the young blue-haired boy sleeping soundly in his arms. The past years have been filled with grief and hardships for the two of them, but for now, perhaps just for now, he felt like he could forget it all and just bathe in the feeling of happiness inside his heart.

“I ask you, please…” he paused as tears started to stream down from his eyes, “Let this be it…”

* * *

Everytime they go into battle, Ashe is always reminded of that moment. He looked at Caspar for a brief moment to remind himself why he’s doing this. That one moment in the garden… that’s what he wanted. As much as he hated this war, there’s no other way of stopping it. He has to elevate Dimitri to the throne no matter the cost to secure peace.

Today, they are trying to move one step closer to that goal. The only obstacle in their way is the wicked Lady Cornelia who has usurped the throne after Dimitri’s supposed execution.

As expected, Cornelia was heavily prepared for the moment, bringing in troops from both the dukedom and the empire, while also deploying some new toys of her own. Taking her down won’t be an easy feat, and no doubt it will cost many lives from both sides to decide the winner of this battle.

The troops were separated into a few different squadrons. Ashe, Linhardt, and Caspar were tasked to secure the northern perimeter and fend off any additional backups that might come through their way. Dorothea, Sylvain, and Ignatz were tasked to clean up the eastern perimeters, while Ferdinand, Annette, and Bernadetta cleaned up the western front. Other than them, there’s also the special flying squad consisting of Seteth, Petra, Ingrid, and Cyril who cleans up the high castle wall and serves as backups as well. But the stars of this show are the main squad, who goes through the center path and heads directly for Cornelia. They consist of Dimitri, the professor, Mercedes, Gilbert, and Catherine.

“Alright, let’s win this!!” Caspar shouted as he went into battle while Ashe followed him from behind.

He tries to keep proximity towards Caspar. Something’s off, that’s what he thought. Ever since the start of this battle, things have been going too smoothly for them. Could it be luck? Or maybe the bad part of this battle is just delayed? He tries not to think about it as he takes on multiple enemies using his bow and arrows.

He turned his back towards Caspar for just a moment when it suddenly happened.

“CASPAR!!!”

Ashe quickly turned his attention back towards the blue-haired boy when he heard Linhardt’s scream. And then he saw it, perhaps the thing he feared the most. Linhardt was shaking as his knees fell to the ground out of shock. Caspar stands in front of him, protecting him from the enemy’s attack. However, he wasn’t exactly successful at it…

Ashe stared in horror as he saw Caspar being impaled with the enemy’s sword, right in the chest.

Out of panic and fury, he ran towards Caspar, quickly killing his attacker with a swift blow using nothing but his brute force. He rushed towards the two of them as Caspar fell to the ground. Ashe held him in his arms, seeing the damage. It was bad, it was really really bad, he thought as he began to cry. It was certainly unrepairable for the moment, and it won’t be long before…

“A-Ashe… L-Lin…” Caspar said with his dying breath, “H-hey… g-glad to… s-see y-you safe…”

“W-what were you thinking, you stupid meathead!” Linhardt chastised him as tears started to fell, “Y-you… no, this can’t be it!”

“C-Caspar, please… please…” Ashe said, “J-just hang on… please… you’ll make it out alive, I know you will!”

“H-Hey A-Ashe… d-don’t be scared, okay?” Caspar said, “I… I’m glad we n-never g-got t-through f-following our stupid p-promise. I… I’m glad w-we c-could stay by each other’s s-side…”

“Don’t go! Please, don’t go!! I don’t know what I’ll do without you!!” Ashe cried.

“I… I c-couldn’t ask for anything better in t-this life…” he said as his breathing starts to slow down, “I… I l-love you… l-let’s meet again l-later, okay?”

Linhardt cries as Caspar’s hand goes limp. It was the beginning of the battle, but they both have lost something important, something irreplaceable. Such is the cost of war, as one might say. Ashe laid down Caspar’s body on the ground, looking at Cornelia smiling from the distance…

This must end, this cycle of pain and suffering, it has to stop one way or the other. He doesn’t care who will win at the end, all he knows right now is that his job is to make sure that Caspar doesn’t sacrifice his life for nothing…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, what to do, what to do...  
> Full disclosure, I don't play FEH since it's not available in my country  
> BUT HOLY SHIRT BEACH SYLVAIN SUDDENLY APPEARED OUT OF NOWHERE  
> Have you seen his CG? Have you heard his lines for the game?  
> Goddess, I want to destroy this a-hole. I'm just so angry right now, grmph...
> 
> Thanks for reading! (the fic and also my short rant about that jerk Sylvain)  
> Kudos, comments, and bookmarks are always appreciated!  
> Stay healthy everyone!


	12. The Sunrise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, sorry for being on hiatus for a while now! I'm not exactly back yet, but I thought I should update this story once in a while. I'll talk about it later, but for now, please enjoy this chapter.

As the sun began to go down, the battle to reclaim Faerghus still raged on. While everyone else succeeds in trying to take over the surrounding areas, the main squad, consisting of Dimitri, the professor, Dedue, Felix, Gilbert, Catherine, and Mercedes, are all having difficulty in trying to break through, mostly because of the large Titanus that Cornelia has deployed to halt their attempts. Although the flight squad managed to stop the supply of magic, the Titanus is still surprisingly hard to beat. At this rate, they’ll get tired out just from beating one of them.

“Your highness,” Gilbert interrupted, “We can’t keep going like this, we need to find another way around to reach Cornelia,”

“You’re right, but from the looks of it, this is the fastest way to reach her,” Dimitri answered, “She’s surrounded by those things as well, that’s why none of the other squad managed to reach the center,”

“Tch, she’s trying to tire us out,” Felix said, “We’ve done so much to these things and I bet we’re not even halfway done,”

“What should we do?” Mercedes asked, “Should we pull back and discuss our strategy?”

“Those things would probably chase us if we run back, we need to keep fighting! If only we have more reinforcements to help us with this thing…”

At that moment, someone suddenly came to their aid, it was Ashe, brandishing a sword with him instead of his bow. His outfit and face are stained with blood, yet he was completely uninjured. Once Dimitri takes a look at his advisor’s face, he quickly realized something has gone wrong. Ashe was crying, that was obvious from his swollen eyes, but he was also angry. It’s a feeling Dimitri knew all too well, he never even thought one second that it could happen to Ashe as well. Quickly, he called out to his advisor and asked him why he came here.

“You were supposed to secure the northern perimeter with Linhardt and Caspar,” Dimitri said, “Is… is everything alright?”

“We… we already did that, and church soldiers have already occupied the spot, but…” Ashe hesitated for a moment, trying to stop his feelings from getting the better of him, “Caspar, he… he took a blow from the enemy, he… he died…”

“Oh no…” Mercedes gasped, covering her mouth, “Ashe, I… I’m so sorry to hear that…”

“He was a brave boy,” Gilbert said, “Going against his own house for his own ideals, he will receive the greatest honor, I assure you…”

“Ashe… I don’t know what to say…” Dimitri said.

“Your highness, I don’t want you to say anything,” Ashe said, “I want you to take back the throne and make his sacrifice worthwhile,”

“I promise to you, his sacrifice won’t be in vain, however… we are having difficulty in reaching that wretched woman,”

“That’s why I’m here,” he answered, “I can help you reach her, just give me the command and I’ll step forward,”

“Help us? Forgive me, Ashe, but have you gone mad?” Gilbert asked, “You’ll die the moment you step forward against those machines! I won’t let you commit suicide!”

“Hold on, Gilbert,” Dimitri said, “Ashe, are you sure you want to do this? Everyone will see you for what you are if you fight against those things…”

“And not all of them will probably be fine with it either,” Felix said, “Some of them might have the same reaction as me watching the boar fight for the first time…”

“I know, but I’ve been thinking about something,” he said, “After this, there’s no doubt there will be major changes within this world, including the church. With you taking the throne, it will be a new world for all of us, and in this new world, I’ve decided… no more secrets, I will come clean to all of our friends and everyone who wished to know, and if they’re afraid of me, then so be it, I will respect whatever they would think of me,”

“Ashe… I… very well, I approve of your decision,” Dimitri said, “Professor, are you… fine with this?”

“You knew, don’t you?” Ashe asked

“From the moment I first saw you,” Byleth smiled, “Is there anything we can do to help you?”

“Only one thing, Catherine?” Ashe called the knight, “I need to borrow Thunderbrand for a moment, trade it with my sword instead,”

“You better not scratch it, okay?” Catherine asked, handing over Thunderbrand to Ashe, “I need that to fight, return it to me once you’re done with it,”

“Don’t worry, I know how to use it,” Ashe smiled, “Besides, there’s not going to be much fighting anyway once I’m done here…”

“Ashe, you can’t do this!!” Mercedes shouted, “Please! I believe that you are strong, but you won’t stand a chance against those things! None of us are!”

“Your highness, this is insane!” Gilbert complained, “Why aren’t any of you stopping this? Felix? Dedue? Professor? And Catherine? You’re handing him your Thunderbrand?”

“Heh, you two worry too much…” Felix said, “Go on, boar, give him the command, let’s see what he’s really made of…”

“Very well, Ashe… as the heir to the Faerghus throne, I order you to… kill every last one of them…”

“Lame,” Felix scoffed.

“That was sort of cool, your highness, but I’ll try to spare everyone,” Ashe chuckled, “Okay, here we go!”

“Ashe, no!” Mercedes said.

“Mercedes, Gilbert, just… stay put for a minute, okay? I’ll be back before you know it,”

Mercedes began to cry as Ashe entered the battlefield, the two Titanus quickly turned their attention at him, preparing for a powerful attack. He will die, she thought, there’s almost no chance that he would survive this, and if that happens, she will never forgive the people who let him die in vain.

But her thoughts quickly changed when she saw it happening, both of Ashe’s eyes turning red, his hair turning white, and his teeth… are those a pair of fangs? Gilbert was astonished to see what was happening, and Mercedes looked at the rest of the squad smiling at their friend. They knew this would happen, that’s why they let the boy run to the battlefield with a heroes’ relic in his hand.

“Felix? W-what’s happening with Ashe?” she asked.

“Just watch,” Felix answered.

“Think he’s using all five?” Dimitri asked.

“His hair stayed the same when he used just two,” Catherine said, “But Caspar’s death… it certainly pushed him to the edge, so he’s gotta be giving all he’s got right now…”

Both Mercedes and Gilbert don’t understand what was going on. They looked at Ashe, still standing in front of the two large Titanus. The young boy smiled, it’s going to happen at any moment now. Mercedes shouted when Ashe got shot by the machinery, but when it’s all over, the boy was nowhere to be found. Did the Titanus blow him into oblivion? Even Cornelia, watching from the top of the castle was surprised by the results. She looked at the spot where the boy was standing, there seems to be no trace of him whatsoever. The Titanus' are strong, yes, but to think they could have the capacity to do something like this, she turned her back for one moment, trying to think through how the Titanus managed to blow up someone into oblivion.

And then it happened.

“L-Lady Cornelia!!”

Cornelia heard one of the soldiers shouting out her name. She turned her attention back to the two Titanus at the castle courtyard. She was shocked to see that it had been sliced in half, quickly falling down hard to the ground. Who…. who could’ve done such a feat??

* * *

On the western perimeter, the flight squad, consisting of Seteth, Ingrid, Petra, and Cyril, are trying their best as well to destroy the Titanus that’s blocking their way to Cornelia. Although they could fly, the thing was large and would immediately block one of them from passing through. They’ve used up all of their battalions to distract the machine, but it was no use as it got back up again the moment they turned their backs on it. It was pointless, Seteth said, and so, he quickly orders them to stand back and leave the Titanus alone. But at the last moment, as he gave out the order, Petra pointed out something heading their way. Seteth looks at the distance, and his eyes widened in shock.

“It… it can’t be…”

Ashe quickly arrived from the skies, carrying Thunderbrand with him. The Titanus began to attack him, but the young boy easily outmaneuvered it and return the attack instead. When the Titanus stepped back due to the blowback, Ashe moved quickly and used Thunderbrand on it, slicing it in half. The squad watched in astonishment, the young innocent boy they knew, suddenly having this kind of power to turn the battle in their favor…

“So, you’ve decided to forgo the secret,” Seteth said.

“Yes, I hope you’re not disappointed at me,” Ashe said.

“I’m not,” he smiled, “The choice has always been up to you, even Rhea knows that…”

“I’ll be happy if I could hear it directly from her,” Ashe answered, “I took care of the Titanus on the main squad’s side, I’m going to destroy that last one on the eastern perimeter, all that’s left is to stop the soldiers from moving through…”

“We’ll take care of that, don’t worry,”

“No, there’s been enough bloodshed for today, I won’t let anyone die again, save for one person,” he said, “I’m going to do something, all I need you to do is to corner Cornelia so that she has nowhere to run. Move to the center when you see Dimitri heading there,”

“Alright, be careful,” Seteth said.

“I always am,”

* * *

The center of the battlefield, now void of the large two Titanus that has been guarding it. Both Mercedes and Gilbert couldn’t believe their eyes, they were struggling to fight the thing just a moment ago, but now… it’s gone within a matter of seconds. They heard loud noises from the eastern and western perimeter as well, meaning the other Titanus that was guarding there has been taken care of as well. Dimitri smiled as they began to move forward.

“Your highness, I don’t know what just happened, but we’re still outnumbered,” Gilbert said, “We need to wait for reinforcements, Cornelia’s troops will have us surrounded if we move forward,”

“Gibert… after all that you saw, you’re still worried?” Dimitri said, “I gave Ashe the order, and he will do everything to ensure we have our victory,”

“But still… there are kingdom soldiers within them, people that’s been forced to servitude by Cornelia, it would be hard to fight them…”

“I’m sure he would think of some… Ashe!”

Ashe suddenly appeared in front of them, after jumping around from places, ensuring that the other squads can move forward to Cornelia’s side. He heard their concern and told them that he wished to see no more bloodshed for today… except for the inevitable one, of course. Felix asked how he’s going to make that happen, and he simply smiled, returning Thunderbrand to Catherine, he stepped forward onto the battlefield again, this time without any arms. The soldiers guarding Cornelia quickly prepared to move, although they’re trembling after seeing what the boy has done. Some of them even ran away as they noticed their numbers started to dwindle. As he reached the center of the castle, Ashe raised his hand as it began to glow, and casts a spell.

“SILENCE!!”

The spell spread far and wide, and suddenly, every one of the imperial and kingdom soldiers was frozen in their tracks. It was like time has stopped, and the only one that can move is everyone fighting against Cornelia and her armies. The woman quickly tried to make a run for it, but it was too late as she became surrounded by the church soldiers. Ashe took a deep breath and stepped back, making way for his prince to move forward.

“She’s all yours, your highness,” Ashe said, “Take your time, I could hold them for as long as you want…”

“Thank you, Ashe,” Dimitri said, “Your service has been invaluable to us…”

“You don’t need to thank me, just… go get your crown, your majesty…”

Dimitri smiled at his old friend, signaling for everyone to move forward. The professor walked alongside with him towards the surrounded Cornelia. The wretched woman… even after all of this she still won’t surrender and continue attacking the troops, though all of them managed to hold her off easily due to their overwhelming number. Felix and Dedue followed behind the two of them, and Ashe, he stayed behind and started walking alongside both Mercedes and Gilbert. He smiled at them as both of his hair and eye color began returning to normal.

“I know I have a lot to explain, but that can wait,” Ashe said, “For now, come on, let us join with them…”

* * *

After the battle was done, and Dimitri was crowned as king, everyone gathered inside the palace to discuss the events of that day. Ashe sat at the center of the room while everyone gathered around him, telling them about his secret. A few of them have suspected it, but couldn’t manage to confirm it, while the others who were kept in the dark this whole time was shocked by the revelation that followed. They never imagined this side of Ashe before, he suddenly went from being known as the commoner boy who had the great luck to a wealthy legendary immortal noble with unimaginable powers and connections to the saints themselves.

They were surprised, yes, but in the end, all of them decided that it didn’t matter one bit.

“So what if you’re rich and immortal?” Sylvain asked, “You’re still Ashe! Not some heartless creature who goes around and takes joy at people’s pain!”

“You’re describing yourself again…” Felix jabs at Sylvain.

“Oh, shut up! You know what I mean!”

“I think what Sylvain’s trying to say is… we don’t care about what you are, Ashe!” Annette said, “You’re our friend, even though you faked your entire story back then, you didn’t fake your personality at all!”

“I know the real Ashe is a kindhearted, sweet young boy,” Mercedes said, “That’s what you’ve shown us everyday, and we never saw any ill-intent behind it…”

“Plus, I don’t think Seiros, King Loog, or Dimitri would’ve trusted him if he was bad all along,” Lysithea said, “But talk about a real legend, hey Linhardt! I guess you have a much better test subject for your research!”

“Oh, him? No, he’s not important,” Linhardt said, “I’ve known about it for six years, so I have everything I needed…”

“AND YOU DIDN’T SHARE A SINGLE PIECE OF INFORMATION ABOUT THIS TO ME??” Professor Hanneman shouted, “I’m sorry, I got too upset…”

“Everyone, thank you for your kind words…” Ashe thanked all of them, “I’ve been through many battles in the past, but I’ve never been through something like this before, thank you for accepting me as your friend!”

Everyone in the room smiled and laughed as they all finished talking. Afterward, they all dispersed in preparation for the celebration party that’s going to be held in just a couple of hours. Dimitri and Linhardt stayed behind inside the room as Ashe wanted to talk about something to them.

“Ashe, I… I’m very sorry for your loss,” Dimitri said, “I never knew about your relationship with Caspar, and, well… I pray to the goddess that he may rest in peace…”

“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry,” Linhardt cried, “I… I wasn’t able to stop it… you lost a lover, and I lost a friend…”

“You two… it’s fine, I’m okay now…” Ashe said, “I admit that I was distraught when he died, but… that doesn’t mean I don’t have a plan…”

“A plan? A plan for what?” Dimitri asked.

“For Caspar,” he answered, “When we embarked on this journey, we knew that there would be a possibility something like this might happen. I… I can’t live without him, so I made another promise with him about what I will do if he ever fell in battle…”

“Ashe, you don’t mean…”

“Yes, I’m going to do it,” Ashe said, “I’m going to get Caspar back…”

* * *

Dimitri stood at the palace balcony with the professor as the celebration party goes off to a nice start inside the ballroom. They discussed the events of the day, and what a crazy victory they pulled off today. The professor looked at every one of their students and quickly noticed something.

“Where’s Ashe?” they asked.

“He… he has something to do back at the Duran territory,” Dimitri answered, “He’s taken a leave of absence for the next moon, so we shouldn’t rely on him for the time being…”

“I understand…” they said, “I was the same when I lost my father, it would be wise to leave him alone for the time being,”

They both stared out onto the kingdom, seeing people celebrating all over the streets. Dimitri quickly thought back to his agreement with Ashe earlier on. He simply hoped that they didn’t make a terrible mistake with this decision…

* * *

Ashe quickly rode back to the Duran territory in the royal carriage that he borrowed from Dimitri. Luckily, the castle horses can move very fast, so he had no difficulty in reaching Fort Duran at a quick pace. When he entered the territory, he saw people celebrating on the streets, just like everywhere across the kingdom, celebrating the return of their king. He felt happy seeing his people finally being liberated from the uncertainty that has plagued them for over five years. He wanted to join them so badly, however, now’s not the time for that. He needs to go home right now.

Once he reached Fort Duran, he rings the bell on the front gate, and it quickly opens. His carriage entered the front yard of the fort, and the head butler quickly opened the carriage doors. The man seemed to be in a hurry, out of his uniform with his bags all packed, looking like he’s ready to leave.

“Good evening, master,” the head butler greeted, “We’ve prepared everything as soon as we received your letter,”

“Thank you,” Ashe said, “And is everyone…”

“They’re gone, they left the fort a couple of hours ago after we’ve made sure everything’s ready,”

“Good,” he said, “Alright, I guess it’s time for you to go to, take the royal carriage back to the castle, there will be another carriage there to take you to the Gautier territory. You’ll be staying with your sister, correct?”

“That is correct,” the head butler answered, “However, should you need any of our assistance, we would happily return here at any moment’s notice,”

“Thanks, but I can handle things myself,” Ashe said, “Besides, I would rather not risk the lives of my servants until I know everything’s finally settled,”

“As always, a wise decision, master,” he said, “Very well, I shall leave it to you then, farewell, master!”

Ashe took out the large coffin stored in the back of the carriage before the head butler rode off, returning it to the castle before going back to his home territory. After the battle, Ashe sent a messenger to Fort Duran, telling his servants to prepare for tonight, also sending all of them back home on a paid leave for the next moon or so. He stared at the night skies once again, looking at the stars and the moon for a brief moment before carrying the coffin inside his home.

He took the coffin down to the basement, into a locked room that no one has entered for a long time, at least until today when the servants began preparing everything for his return. He then opened the coffin, looking at Caspar’s dead body for a short period, still feeling the grief from it. He sighed and puts his body on the altar in the center of the room. Now’s not the time for crying, he told himself, he has work to do.

Ashe cleaned up Caspar’s body from all the filth and blood that came during the battle. He then dressed him in one of his outfits. It’s a coincidence that they both have the same stature, so they fit into one another’s clothes. Once everything’s done, he puts Caspar back on the altar. He then inspected his neck, trying to find the vein that he usually bites. Finding it on a dead body is more difficult since there’s no more pulse to help indicate the position.

“We’ve done this a lot of times before, but I still couldn’t remember where it is…” Ashe chuckled, “Guess I should take notes after this…”

Finally finding the vein’s location, Ashe released both of his fangs and bites into Caspar’s neck. When he was still alive, Caspar occasionally lets Ashe drink from him as a treat. It tasted sweet, just as he expected, but after death, the taste seemed off, it’s still mostly sweet, but there’s a new mix of bitter flavor now, and a hit of sourness as well. Once he was done drinking, he cleaned his mouth, and the bite mark wounds on Caspar’s neck. He then opened a small box on the table and took out a dagger from it.

This dagger, he hasn’t seen it in a very long time. It was one of the spoils he received after the war with Nemesis all those years ago, belonging to one of Nemesis’ fallen soldiers. It was considered as a heroes’ relic, though it was never registered as such, which means nobody ever knew of its existence. Rhea allowed Ashe to keep the dagger on the condition that he promise to never lose it, and so, he kept the dagger inside the fault underneath the fortress, checking its condition once in a while, but never taking it outside of the vault. Until today, of course…

Ashe stood in front of Caspar, looking at the dagger for a moment before making a cut on his wrist with it. It was a heroes’ relic, so it has the power to wound him. His blood started to flow out from his body. He quickly opened Caspar’s mouth and feed him his blood, hoping that this would be enough to finish the ritual. The wound started to heal in a matter of seconds, and the blood stopped dripping out from his wrist.

Now all he could do is to just sit and wait…

* * *

He sat and read a book on the corner of the room, his old master’s journal that detailed how the ritual works. Ashe doesn’t remember much when the ritual was performed on him all those years ago, mostly because he was already near death and mostly unconscious, but by the time he woke up, his heart had already stopped beating. He turned to other pages, reading the other journal entries, some of them even contained mentions of Ashe, dating back to his teenage years when he started to grow up.

“Dear journal, today Ashe woke up a little bit too excited, if you know what I mean. He panicked when I entered his chamber, seeing the state that his clothes were in. I couldn’t help myself but to laugh, I know it is bad, but it was just too hilarious…”

Yeah, that’s enough reading for tonight, probably…

He walked out of the room and went to the secret library in the basement to return the journal. That was embarrassing, he thought, to think that his master wrote down the time he started puberty. Well, he is his father after all, and no matter how embarrassing it was, he understands completely why he would write down something like that.

Ashe returned to the other room after he’s done at the library. However, when he entered, he was greeted with a surprise.

“Hi…”

Caspar was up, sitting on the altar and looking directly at Ashe. The silver-haired boy was speechless, but then, he started to smile and crying at the same time. What was lost to him has finally been returned.

“Hi…” Ashe said, “Welcome back, I missed you so much…”

“I told you I’ll see you later!” Caspar smiled, “Thanks for doing this, you have no idea what this means to me…”

“I think I do…”

Caspar quickly got off the bed and ran into Ashe’s arm, giving him a big kiss on the lips while they both started to laugh and cry at their reunion. Even though it’s only been hours, they were both worlds apart from each other. But now, they’re together again, and this time, they’re here to stay forever without any worries about what their future might hold…

“Hey, um… I’m feeling kinda hungry…” Caspar said.

“I could make you a snack,” Ashe said, “You want some sandwich, maybe?”

“No, I don’t think I’m hungry for food…” he answered, “You know what I mean, right?”

“Yeah, of course,” Ashe said, “Come on, let’s get you something to eat…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so we're back, not fully back yet, but at least I'm updating, right?  
> If you're wondering where I've been for the past couple of months, I wasn't exactly in the writing mood, so I took a short break, played some games, and mostly working on my OCs. 
> 
> I started writing again around mid-August, but I didn't work on this story, I have a couple of ideas, including a Felix/Annette and a Dimitri/Claude story, so I decided to write a bit into that first. Will I publish them? I don't know, but then I've decided to work on this story again, and the end result was I've managed to finish chapter 13 and 14, which I will publish in the coming weeks.
> 
> And about that OC part, I've been writing their stories at well! I've finished one chapter, and I'm planning to publish them on Wattpad or Tapas when I've reached at least five chapters in the bank. I hope you guys look forward to it! The story is about a modern magic AU pair of detectives, but we'll mostly look at their relationship rather than the job itself.
> 
> As for me, I'm doing just fine, still busy at my full-time job, but I'm fine.
> 
> Thanks for reading!  
> Kudos, comments, and bookmarks are always appreciated!


End file.
